


Maybe Today

by murphysarc



Category: Original Work
Genre: Chaptered, Complete, Death, F/M, Fantasy, Gen, Immortality, Superpowers, Teen Fiction, Violence, young adult
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-18
Updated: 2014-03-18
Packaged: 2018-01-16 05:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 36,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1333531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/murphysarc/pseuds/murphysarc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some people want to live forever. Hope Williams wishes she didn't. She's been alone for 212 years, and all she wants is someone who can relate. But even when she finds people like her, she's singled out again - by mistake. And now, all because someone above her screwed up, she's forced to make sacrifices no one should.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> *This is an original work  
> *Warnings include death and violence

I gave it another shot. One moment, one second, that's all it takes.

For most people you're here one moment and gone the next. Just one second is all it can take for your life to cease.

That's all you need to die.

And am I ever sick of it.

I raised the knife, wanting to end my existence for once.

I've lived too long. I've seen too much. I've killed. I've seen killing. I've seen so much death, so much life, it kills me.

Ha.

That's actually really funny.

With one movement, one second, I plunged the knife into my heart. Immediately my brain shut down. I knew it was happening as I died.

I lifted out of my body, seeing myself from below. My spirit always did this. Then, right after that, I'm sucked out of the room and into the next dimension.

At least, that's what I think it is. It's not like ours at all, so I just assume it's a dimension.

Other spirits flew past mine. They all got where they were going. They all get to go where I can't – death.

I felt another force, pulling me back to my body. This time I didn't even resist. I've tried before. I can only delay the inevitable.

I was back in my body. The knife remained sticking out of my chest. There wasn't any blood, anywhere. I sighed, pulling out the knife. It slid out easily. I threw it across the alley in anger.

Hi. I'm Hope Williams, and I'm immortal.

I don't even know how. All I know is that I was born on January 1st, 1800. I aged normally until I hit the age of sixteen. I have no idea why that's the age, it just is.

After that, nobody seemed to understand  _why_  I wasn't getting old. In the year 1843, my dad tried to kill me. He thought I was a demon sent from hell, sent to destroy his family. After all, what normal person could possibly be immortal?

I didn't die when he killed me. No matter how small any injury is, it heals after about a minute. Even if it's fatal, somehow I rise from the dead.

Later I pretended to be a boy. In that time, you could get off easier with being male.

A very sad fact.

I joined the Civil War. Then I ran again, living on the streets. I still do live on the streets. It's my kind of life.

I survived that – obviously. Then I joined World War one. And then the second one. Since I'm in Canada, I fought on their side both times. Since I obviously survived those, I managed to keep an alright life going on and live on the streets.

I've tried killing myself loads of times. I killed people in the war and every time I wondered why they had it so easy. I knew there was something after life – but what, that I'd never know.

So that's me. I've never known peace. I've never known love, or calm, or friendship. I've never been to school. I'm "uneducated" for the real world but on the streets, you don't want to cross me.

I'm 212 years old.

And I don't even have wrinkles.

That's me. That's the wonderful Hope Williams.

I'm not bright, or talented, or fun. I'm hopeless. I'm nothing, worthless.

My only wish is to die.


	2. Chapter One

__

Walking down a dark alleyway is no shock for me. I don't have a permanent place to sleep. I only eat because I steal, but right now it's getting harder and harder to do so. Curse the modern times.

Video cameras. Who would've thought?

Anyways, I was extremely hungry and I wanted to eat soon. I was close to a grocery store but I'd already stolen from them and they caught me. They knew my face.

I sank down to the ground. My stomach growled hungrily. "I can't get food," I said. "I'm sorry." Oh, great. Talking to your stomach was a sign of craziness.

I'd never died of starvation before. Maybe that would be a better way to go. Maybe I'd actually die doing that. But what if I got sent back to my body? Would the hunger go away, or would I just die again?

The thought was terrifying. I couldn't let that happen.

I heard screaming from a couple streets over. It sounded like a young girl. What on earth was a young girl doing out on the streets in the bad part of the city this time of night? Whatever situation she was in, it was her fault.

But maybe she had food. If I saved her from whatever was attacking her, maybe she'd give me money. From the sound of her high-pitched, wailing scream she was a petite little girl.

"Stop!" she screamed again. "Take it all, take all the money!"

That's when I made my decision.

Whoever was mobbing her wouldn't get that money.

I would. And then I was going on a shopping spree.

I raced down the street, stumbling occasionally. A couple of times I almost passed out, but I made it to another alleyway.

A teenage girl, dressed expensively, was being cornered by another teenager, but this one was gruff and mean looking. He obviously had street cred.

He was holding a silver gun to the girl's temple and she was tossing her wallet away from herself. Just as he bent down to pick it up, I sighed and said, "Hey."

He turned around, looking surprised that someone was stopping him from cashing in on his money. "Give the girl her wallet back," I said. I was getting really hungry and I couldn't stand very well. "Now."

"Punk," he said. "Why don't ya come down here and fight me for it?"

I shrugged. "Alright." He gave me a sneer and then he lunged forwards at me, positioning the gun and getting ready to shoot me. Just before he could aim I ducked down, rolled, and gave him a high kick to his chest.

He grunted, dropping the gun. I picked it up instantly and aimed it at his head. "Don't shoot," he cried. "Please, don't shoot me…"

"Get away from here," I said. "Don't come back. Leave town. Do whatever. Just leave."

And he did. He high-tailed it outta that alley, screaming like a little girl. As soon as he was gone I groaned, the hunger taking over. I really shouldn't have fought like I did but I couldn't help it. Who doesn't love the feeling of a good brawl?

I sank to the ground as the girl picked up her wallet and ran over to me. "Oh my god, thank you so much!" she cried. I didn't reply.

"Hey, are you okay?" she said like a dimwit.

"No!" I screamed. At this point, I didn't even care about her money. Even if I had it I wouldn't be able to get up, or get anywhere. I was going to die, and then die again, for the rest of eternity. I had to accept that.

The girl picked up the gun that the boy had dropped. "It's mine," she said when concern flashed across my face. "He took it from me."

Well, at least she had some sense.

"Look, I'm really sorry if I'm wrong, but I don't think I am, so…" She trailed off, not finishing the sentence.

Before I could react she'd raised the gun to my temple.

I didn't have the energy to duck. She pulled the trigger.

I floated out of my body, seeing myself and the girl from below. Figures that she actually knew how to defend herself. She probably guessed my intentions. She had street cred.

That just figured.

Before I could think a bunch of curses at her – I can't talk when I'm dead. Annoying, but true – I'm sucked into the funnel that is the next dimension. The spirit of a young, five year old boy flew past me, tears running down his face.

_At least you got where you were going, kid. Don't cry for that._

_Cry for what you've gained._

_Never for what you've lost._

I didn't resist. This time, I wanted to go back to my body just so I could put that girl in her place. And what did she mean about "being wrong?" I'd ask her that…before I killed her.

And then, yeah, I'd take her money.

I was pushed backwards, back into my dimension, back into reality, back into the living. I wondered which life I was on…hundredth? Two hundredth? Who knew anymore?

I gasped as soon as I was returned. I didn't die again because of my hunger, as expected – instead I felt a little more strength flow through my bones. It wasn't enough for long, but it would sustain me through the night.

"So I was right," the girl said, reminding me she was there.

Immediately I grabbed her shirt collar. She dropped the gun in surrender. "Jeez," she said. "Don't know who I am?"

Why wasn't she surprised at all this returning to life business?

"No," I said. "No, I don't, and I don't care.  _You just fucking shot me in the head._  I think I'll return the favour."

"Ha," she said, smirking, "I don't think you can."

"Try me," I sneered. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Why, an Eternal, actually," she said, shrugging the best she could in my grip. "Can't you tell?"

I sighed through gritted teeth. "Don't know, don't care." I picked up the gun with my other hand. As I did so, she began to laugh.

"Shut up," I said, right before positioning it on her temple and firing.

I didn't get up for five minutes.

I was too preoccupied in my thinking about the girl.

It wasn't the fact that I'd killed her that was getting to me. I'd done that many, many times before. Too many lives I had released.

No, it was the fact she knew things I didn't.

She knew that I wouldn't die, and she also knew something else – like, what was an Eternal? It seemed that she knew a lot of things I didn't, and now I was regretting killing her.

But she was dead. And I wasn't. I had to get some food.

I stood up slowly, taking one last look at the dead girl's face. Her eyes were wide open – in the night, the chestnut colour looked completely black. I couldn't make out any other details of her face in the night, but I remembered her eyes.

I remembered them because they used to shine.

I ran my fingers through my hair, and then turned around, walking out of the alley.

For some reason, I left the wallet in her pocket.

Just as I was about to turn away, I heard, "Hey! Leaving so soon?"

I spun around, crouching down, getting ready for a fight. The alley behind me was too dark to see who it was. I had a thought. But I couldn't be right.

She walked back out of the alley, extending a hand. Her chestnut eyes shone again.

"Nice to meet ya," she said. "From one Eternal to the next."

"But…how…you're like me?" I gasped. "You're immortal?"

"Got that right," she scoffed. "Just takes me a little longer to get back to my body."

"How many?" I demanded immediately.

"Three others," she said. "You're the last one roaming free."

"Roaming free?" I cried. "So, what, are you going to take me and lock me up in a zoo?"

"Not really," she said, smiling. "Depends on your definition of zoo. We just have to get you there before the Raze show up."

"Raze?"

"Evil beasties. They're immortal, but they can be killed – they won't return to their body," she 'explained.' It didn't satisfy me, though.

"That's great. There are a lot of 'evil beasties' on the streets, girl," I said, shaking my head in disgust. "I was coming here to save you from one of them, and then, yeah, steal your wallet. That's not happening now.

_"Now_  I want to know  _exactly_  who the hell you are and what you're doing talking to me. I'd leave by now but you've revealed too much about yourself. Now I'm going to shut up and you're going to explain things to me  _right now._ "

Was I mad?

Oh, fuck yes, I was mad.

"I can't," she sighed. "I can't do that here."

"Well, you better. It's not like I'm inviting you for tea or anything."

"I don't have to. The Raze could come back, and honestly," she said, pausing briefly for emphasis, "we're in the middle of a dark alleyway."

"Actually we're at the front of an alley."

"Whatever."

We both stared at each other, before I finally said, "Start talking."

"No," she exclaimed. "I will, but  _not here_. Humans can see us too easily."

"And we're not human, obviously. Still. Does it look like there are any humans around here to see us?" I gestured around, making my point clear.

"Maybe yes, maybe no," she said, "but there are Raze around. Three Eternals haven't been identified by them yet. You're one of them. I'm not – they'll recognize me."

"What are Eternals? Why don't you start there?" I suggested, because right now she was doing a very poor job of explaining.

"We're Eternals."

"Got that, thanks."

"Well, that's all I'm going to disclose."

"Let me guess, I should feel privileged," I snorted.

"And you'll feel more 'privileged' when I explain everything," she groaned in frustration, "but  _I will not do that here_!"

"Yeah," I said, bending down, getting ready for a fight. "Yeah, you will."

"God. You're so difficult," she sighed. "I really can see why you're the Death Eternal."

"Explanations, on that last sentence too," I snapped, tired of her games.

"I don't want to do this," she said. She began rifling through her denim pocket, apparently looking for something.

"You already said that," I spat at her, fury in my words. "You've done a better job explaining  _that_  then you have the rest of it!"

"I wasn't talking about explaining," she whispered. "I was talking about something else."

"Like what?"

"I'm really sorry, I  _so_  don't want to do this…," she sighed. She pulled her hand out of her pocket and played with a small, cylindrical object in between her forefinger and thumb.

"What's that?"

"Nothing," she said, just before she leaned over and pushed it against my neck.

It happened so fast I didn't have time to move. I felt a stabbing pain in my neck and immediately my vision grew blurry. I felt extremely dizzy and sank to the ground.

"Sorry!" she said, pocketing that cylinder. "Had to."

What the hell did she drug me with?

My head thumped against the cold ground, but I managed to make myself proud by cursing at her about a million times.

The last thing I saw was her taking out a cell phone.

Then I was dead to the world.


	3. Chapter Two

_I'm floating. There's nobody here but the dead. How do I know they're dead? I don't know, but the pale white souls drifting by me are all dead ones._

_And somehow I can sense their presence._

_I'm in the same vortex that I've been loads of times. Every single time I die I go here. I suppose these are the souls that got to stay._

_"Hope?"_

_That's my mother's voice echoing through the vortex. My mom died over a hundred and fifty years ago. Why is she here, now? Shouldn't she be farther in death?_

_"Honey, why are you here?" she calls. A bright white light, another soul, floats towards me. It flashes once, and then takes the form of my mom. She looks beautiful._

_"Mom," I gasp._

_"Yes, Hope, it's me," she says softly. She never spoke this tenderly when she was alive._

_"Where am I?" I ask._

_"You're in the next dimension," she replies. Her whole face looks at ease and she stands calmly. The vortex of space ripples by us._

_"I'm dead, aren't I," I reason. "That's why I'm here."_

_"No, Hope," she says. "You're alive still; only your consciousness remains here."_

_"Why?" I ask._

_"You're an Eternal, Hope," she whispers. She says this as if she regrets it, like she doesn't want it to be that way._

_"That girl told me that," I recall. "What does it mean?"_

_"'That girl' will have to explain that to you," she chuckles. "But because you are the right Eternal you can speak to me."_

_"Speak to the dead?" I cry. "That's impossible."_

_"You're already immortal," she laughs. "There's a reason for that."_

_"How do you know that?" I ask. "You always told me the devil's sins were in me, and those would live forever."_

_"Hon, I only told you that because I had to," she says. "I knew there had to be a reason for it, but I would've been shunned for defending you. Looking back on it, it was harsh, I realize that."_

_"It was," I agree, yet somehow I forgive her. "I…so I can talk to any dead person?"_

_"Yes, when you sleep," she tells me. "But you're waking up now."_

_She's right. My vision's going hazy. Mom's fading away. "No!" I yell. "No! Don't go! I still need answers!"_

_She waves goodbye before everything flashes and she's gone. All that's left is a white, orb-like, milky soul that floats away from me. I try to reach out and grab it but I can't move._

_Everything dims, and then, everything's gone._

I bolted upright.

I was lying in a soft, white bed. More beds lined the walls, going left and right. None of them were occupied. Shelves were also around, filled with beaker and vials. I couldn't tell what was in the beakers, but they looked medical.

An infirmary. That's where I was.

Nobody was around me, so I stood up, ready to fight anybody that got in my way. I was going to leave. I wasn't going to stay here, wherever here was. This place was obviously established, and I did better on my own. Plus, that girl that I had killed, the one who was like me, she was probably here.

And I wasn't sure I wanted to see her again.

Also, my mom was on my mind. My dream was strange. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that girl had drugged me. I was deluded.

My mom had never been that nice.

She'd never be that accepting.

I crept along the wooden floor slowly, keeping myself low. There weren't any windows, but I didn't want to take any chances. I stepped slowly, trying not to make the floor creak. Luckily, I was successful.

The door wasn't far. I crept over to the handle, turning it so slowly it took me a while to get it all the open. Without a sound, the door swung open. When I stepped out of the door, I found myself in a little room. Growling in a bit of frustration, I opened the door directly in front of me. If I was in another room I'd kill somebody.

Anything could be on the other side. Death. Mayhem. Rainbows and sparkles. Whatever it was, I wasn't sticking around.

I was also getting extremely hungry. The energy my death had given me was gone and I needed food. Fast.

As soon as I stepped out, I changed my mind.

I was in a large field. The grass was green, smelled fresh, but it stretched out as far as I could see in every direction, like it was never ending. I could smell the scent of the ocean in the air, something I've always loved. There were some trees, and the smell of pine was something else I loved.

Why was I in the city? Don't know. Didn't seem important.

Four buildings were in the clearing, all of which amazed me. They formed a sort of plus sign, one on each cardinal point. The building to the north was tall, narrow, and was made of stone. To the east, there was a building identical to the last one, but it definitely had less stories. To the south was a more decorated one – it had gold patterns all over it, and quite a few mottos saying things like, "Eternally protecting," or "Forever dying." The last one looked like any regular house – a big, mansion-like house, but it had a normal roof, normal siding, and definitely normal appearance.

I had just come out of the mansion-like house, the one to the west. So…the infirmary was in that house? Was this some sort of village? A high-tech village…but wait. I'd missed the most important thing.

In the middle of those buildings were several odd things – small wooden sheds, targets, and the weirdest of all, four normal-looking teenagers sitting on a picnic blanket.

And, oh god, one of them was that girl. I hadn't been able to make out her features clearly before, in the dark, but I just knew it was her.

Her hair was black, glossy, and her eyes were chestnut brown. She saw me from where she was sitting, but she only raised her eyebrows and then resumed laughing and talking with the other three people there, so I assumed she wanted to see what I'd do.

I didn't even bother to look at the other three kids.

No, instead I growled slightly and marched right over to the picnic area. The three kids I didn't recognize all started at my sudden appearance, but the girl didn't appear surprised at all.

She didn't flinch until I slapped her in the face.

She snapped her head back, a slow grin spreading up her face. "Hey, now, girl," she laughed, "you've got strength."

"Who the fuck are you? Where the fuck is this?" I shouted, slamming my foot into the ground. I felt power coursing through my body – most of it was probably adrenaline, but hey, it was working for me.

"Relax!" she chuckled. "Haven't changed since we last met, eh?" She sighed, and then stood up, brushing dirt off her jeans. Now that I saw her in the light, she was quite pretty.

"Just answer the questions," I snapped. "I'm really tired of your games. You've been playing me this whole time. You killed me once, and then you drugged me with god knows what."

She scoffed, but then she sighed, as if relenting. "I got ya here. I do have to explain, don't I?"

One of the guys piped up, "Clara, she's one of us." He wore square glasses around his warm, chocolaty eyes. Standing up, he offered me a hand. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Jonah."

"Hope," I said, but I didn't take his hand. I was too pissed off. He shrugged indifferently and sat back down.

"Dani," another girl said. She had jet black hair with one red streak in it, probably dyed. She sized me up and down with her electrifyingly blue eyes. Her hair was definitely dyed, then – it brought out her eyes.

"And I'm Fane," the last boy said. His green eyes brought out his short brown hair. "That's Clara." He gestured to the girl who'd shot me.

"'Kay," I said. "Now Clara's going to explain."

"Yeah, I know," Clara sighed. "Follow me, then." She turned around, heading back to the house I had just come from, the mansion-like one. I grumbled, but then Jonah motioned for me to follow her, so I did.

She walked right inside, not caring if I was following or not. I caught up quickly, just as the door to the infirmary was closing. We entered the small room and she went up one level instead of straight.

The room we were standing in had nothing in it save for a large map in the middle of the floor, held up by a stand.

Clara wasted no time walking across the floor to the map. I didn't even care about where I was or anything like that – I'd been in worse situations of location – I just wanted to know who she was and why she knew I'd never die.

I liked to think I'd done a good job of keeping myself hidden through all the years. I'd never revealed myself to anybody, never really opened up. And that's been fine.

So how did she know?

My stomach growled. I was getting tired, and I was starving, but I couldn't ask for food. That would be strange.

Clara reached down, and when she began tapping the map repeatedly, I found that it wasn't a map, it was an electronic interface of some kind. She flew through the options so quickly, I couldn't even tell what she was doing.

Finally, she stopped as a hologram sprung from the interface. I was slightly shocked by the technology, but I quickly became accustomed to it as fascination and curiousity began to set in.

The image showed a young boy, with tousled brown hair and sea green eyes that held much knowledge for his young age. "This is Joel. He was born on January 1st, 1200," Clara explained. "He was the first to find that being born with the new century, gave you…different abilities."

I was born with the turn of the century.

By the way she said that, she was too.

"Anyways, he found that he would never die. He would never age, either, once he hit sixteen. And…he saw the future."

Everything she had said made sense, until she came to that part. "That's impossible," I said quietly. I didn't want to sound too ferocious and make her stop explaining.

"No, it's not," she said. By the way she didn't sound exasperated, she'd had this conversation before. "He was gifted by some higher power we don't know about yet."

"Re-run that sentence by me again."

She gave an involuntary sigh, but nevertheless she continued, "Ever heard of gods?"

"Yes."

"Well, a god exists. We don't know who they are, or why they did what they did but they're the reason we don't die." I nodded. Honestly, that idea wasn't too upsetting. It was kinda nice having somebody to blame.

"So anyways, he saw the future. And in future, he saw us," she said. "He saw this place being built, and he foresaw the role we would play."

The image on the display changed from Joel to an aerial view of the place we were in. It was current, because the other three teenagers were still having their picnic in the picture. "He didn't know what the role would be, exactly, but he knew it would be important. He had to keep us safe, so he set up this camp. He knew we'd all find it."

"Safe? Safe from what?" I asked. "Do you mean those Raze people you mentioned in the alley?"

"Exactly," she agreed. "He saw those too." The image changed again, showing the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen. It's head was that of a large praying mantis – large, beady eyes, and two long antennae coming out of its head. Its mouth dripped some sort of venom, and its skin looked hard and shelled. Its body was no different – all hard like an insect, but it had human shaped hands, and it walked on two legs like a human did.

"That's disgusting," I said, just as the image changed again. This time, it showed another insect creature that looked exactly like the other one, except its skin was brown and its eyes red.

"That's the female," Clara explained. "The eyes and skin tell them apart."

"So they want to kill us," I said. "How do they do that?"

"We're not invulnerable, contrary to what you might think," she said. The image changed again, this time showing four different vials all filled with liquids. "There are four poisons that can seriously harm us, and when they're all brought together, then they kill us and we don't come back. The death is slow. Painful. It takes a while, but when it strikes, it's harsh."

I looked at the vials. They were all labeled, and a chill ran through me as I realized these poisons were incredibly common. "Arsenic," I said, "cyanide, ricin, and mercury."

"Yep," she said. "Raze have arsenic in their venom, and mercury in their claws."

"But you said together they kill us," I asked, confused. "What does just one do?"

"Cyanide knocks you out cold for three hours. Arsenic makes wounds heal normal speed, ricin can block your powers – returning to your body and such – for days, and mercury infects cells with a toxin," she explained.

"Okay…," I said, "so the Raze were going to come after me in the alley."

"No, they were going to come after me," she corrected. "They only know that I'm an Eternal, and they know about Dani. You, Fane, and Jonah are all still hidden."

"And if they saw you with me then they'd know I was an Eternal, or whatever," I finished for her.

"Exactly."

"Okay, so what is an Eternal, really?"

"Well, you already know that an Eternal is immortal. Unless those four poisons are mixed, we can live forever. There are always five Eternals. If one is killed by the Raze, at the turn of the century another is born," she began. "That's how Joel foresaw it and that's how it will always be."

"That's why I was born on January 1st," I said. "You all were?"

"Yeah, in different centuries. Fane is so old, he was born in the 1600's," she said. "He's stayed alive all this time."

"That's impressive, actually. But what's the point?" I asked. "Why are we here? What purpose do we serve?"

"We're supposed to protect the world," she said. "We've done a shit job, though."

"Yeah," I agreed. "The world's not that great."

"Anyways, each Eternal has their own powers," she said. "I'm known as the Nature Eternal. Basically, I can control the Earth element."

"That's why you called me the Death Eternal," I realized. "Because that was my…power?"

"Yes," she agreed, seemingly pleased I was catching on so fast. "You are the Death Eternal. What year were you born?"

"1800."

"So the last Death Eternal was killed sometime in the 1700's. And then you were born. Since you're the Death Eternal, you have powers related to Death, and a few various ones."

"Powers related to Death?"

"For one, you can come back to life in record speed. For me and the other Eternals it takes a full nine minutes and twenty-two seconds. For you, it takes a minute," she said. I thought I detected a slight hint of jealousy in her voice, but I couldn't be sure. "You can also hold something we call Séances, where you contact the dead."

"My mom," I realized with a sharp inhale. "When you knocked me out, I had a dream about her. I was in the vortex place, where you go when you die, and she was there…but she's been dead for over a hundred years."

"I suppose when you sleep spirits that you know visit," Clara suggested. "It would make sense."

"Okay, so I'm a huge super-freak," I sighed. "And you four are like me."

"Yeah, if you wanna put it like that," she snorted. "I'm the Nature Eternal. You're the Death Eternal. Dani is Time, Fane is Matter, and Jonah is Mind. Oh, I forgot. Here, take this."

She handed me a small vial, exactly the same as the one she'd knocked me out with. "What's this?" I asked.

"It's cyanide," she said. I was about to drop it, but she stopped me. "No. That's how I knocked you out. It's actually pretty helpful."

I didn't know what to say, but I pocketed the cyanide.

"So what now?" I finally decided on.

"Well, you have to stay here," she said. "We need you."

"Why?" Don't get me wrong here. I wanted to stay. To be with people like me, people that wouldn't discard or judge me…it was a dream come true. Maybe I wouldn't want to die.

But why did they need me so badly?

"Our god is supposed to finally come down and meet us when we get all five Eternals together," Clara explained. "For the first time, we have all five Eternals."

"What are they going to do when they come?" I asked.

"Nobody knows."

"Great."

A long silence ensued.

Finally, Clara turned off the display and looked me up and down, fully appraising me for the first time. "You need to see the camp," she said. "Follow me."

She took me outside again, down the elevator and out of the house. "We were just in the Mansion," she said. "I have no idea why Joel built it so large."

"Is Joel dead?" I asked suddenly.

"Yes," she replied shortly. "Raze got him a couple years ago."

"Wait, just a couple years ago? He was still alive then?" I exclaimed. "He survived…for over 800 years?!"

"Yeah," she said, a touch of sadness echoing in her voice. "He was careful, but he went out to find Dani, and Raze attacked. Dani got here using her powers, but he didn't."

"What kind of powers does she have?" I asked, recalling that she was the Eternal of Time.

"She can time travel," Clara replies, "and she can travel place to place in the present time. Ride the winds of time and all that."

"That sounds cooler than calling the dead," I grumbled. "What can you do?"

"Don't underestimate yourself," Clara commanded, before softening her voice and continuing, "I can heal people – I'm the only one that can naturally heal mercury poisoning – and I can control earth."

My stomach growled again.

Seriously, I felt like it was eating itself. It was just as I had felt on that alley, just before I had heard Clara's screams.

"I really hate to ask," I said, "but do you have any…food?"

"Food?" Clara exclaimed, laughing. "Yeah, of course. C'mon." She laughed again, and then practically skipped to the picnic blanket the other three were still sitting by. What was with her? When I first met her, she was dead to earth serious, and now she was completely lighthearted.

I didn't really have a choice, so I followed her. She sat back down, next to the other three, and made room for me. Hesitantly, I sat down.

"Eat," she said, gesturing to the sandwiches and fruit. Just looking at it made my mouth water.

"Do you always eat out here?" I asked. The sun was shining so brightly it created a façade that everything was alright.

"Unless it's raining," Jonah said. I suppose I should have gotten that.

"Where is this place?" I asked.

"This camp?" Fane said. I nodded. I was a little unaccustomed to asking questions and speaking to people I didn't really know. I was used to just doing things.

"We're still in Canada," Clara replied, reaching for a grape. She plucked it off the stem, and then finished, "In the Rocky Mountains. I can't tell you more. What if you get captured and then you're tortured? You might compromise us. Wait! I shouldn't have told you that!"

"It's okay," I said. No one else had been listening. "I won't tell anybody."

"If you do, I may have to kill you," she promised. Something told me she'd live up to her words. On that happy note, she tossed the grape into the air and caught it with her mouth. "Eat."

I shrugged. She had a point.

And so, I ate. I ate until I wasn't hungry anymore, which is a lot of food. By the time I was done, Jonah was staring at me with his eyebrows raised. He looked like he was calculating my speed or something. Fane and Dani seemed impressed, and Clara shrugged, eating more grapes.

"You're fast," Jonah finally said.

Dani snorted. "Statin' the obvious, there, eh?"

"Canadian much?"

"Hey! We're all Canadian! Just because I spent longer here doesn't mean my "slurred Canadian accent," is bad!" she protested.

"Hon, I spent my whole life in Canada," Clara sighed. "I'm not talking like that."

"Neither am I," I said.

"Yeah, okay, it's fake," Dani said, dropping the accent. "I just like to speak that way."

"There, you see? And sweetie, we're both a hundred years older than you! We know these things!" Clara looped her arm around my neck. She leaned heavily on me, and when Fane pushed her, she fell right on top of me.

"Hey!" I complained, but we were both laughing hysterically. Clara didn't seem to want to move, so I pushed her off. It was her turn to complain.

When we were both composed and sitting up, she looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Shhh. Just relax and eat a grape." She majestically reached her arm back and plucked a grape, and then fed it to me. I bit into it gratefully.

For some reason, we both cracked up again. The others couldn't get us back to a normal state for a few minutes.

And from that moment on, we both became sisters.

When we were done the picnic, which I was informed was breakfast, Clara took me for a tour. The mansion house, creatively called the Mansion, had the Cafeteria (which was never used) the Library (which was only used by Jonah) the "Explanation room" (which hopefully would never be used again) and the Infirmary (which was constantly used).

The other, larger building was the School – the Practice rooms, the Classroom, and the Observatory were all there. I'd go there tomorrow for school. According to Clara, we had school Mondays to Saturdays, and Sundays were free. Today was Sunday, so it made sense.

The large tower was the Dormitory. Each Eternal had a floor, so there were five floor. I had the bottom floor, which apparently was underground. "You have a whole Séance room down there, and spirits like it underground," Clara explained.

The last building brought great sadness to Clara. "That was Joel's workplace," she said. "He was like a father to all of us. You and Jonah…you both will never meet him."

She said that the only purpose for that place now was to see old pictures of him and theories about the "god" that was above us. Apparently a device was there to get out of the camp, too.

"Aren't they supposed to show up now?" I asked. "The five of us are here."

"Supposedly, but it could be anytime," she said. "Or Joel might have been wrong and they won't come at all."

"What happens then?"

"Then, my friend, we are screwed."

Seemed legit.

By the time we were done, it was lunch, and so we ate outside again with another picnic. Everyone seemed to immediately accept me, and the bonds of friendship seemed to grow tighter.

For the rest of the day we all goofed off. Another shed held sports equipment, and we all played kickball, soccer, volleyball, and football. We tried some basketball, but the grass didn't work so well as a court. Clara said we'd use the Practice rooms, but they were closed.

"Who is the teacher here?" I asked. "Or do we teach ourselves?"

"You'll see," she said tauntingly. "He's a bundle of fun."

No one would tell me more.

Clara also gave me a syringe filled with cyanide. "I injected you with this stuff when you wouldn't come with me," she explained. "It's handy, believe me."

I dutifully put it in my belt. Throughout the day, I also received two daggers, which fit my fighting style perfectly. "It's nice that you learned to fight," Clara said. "Saves me a lot of work."

After dinner, Clara said she'd show me my dorm. Jonah said he wanted to finish working out some math problem, Fane wanted to finish his model airplane, and Dani wanted to finish reading her book, so we all said goodbye and parted ways.

I asked Clara why she didn't have anything to "finish." She told me she wasn't the project type.

We entered the dorm building into a small room. A sign said,

CLARA, GO STRAIGHT AHEAD

JADE DANI, GO UP ONE LEVEL

FANE, GO UP TWO LEVELS

JONAH, GO UP THREE LEVELS

MARSHA HOPE, GO DOWN ONE LEVEL

As the others followed directions, going through a door that said "Up," I asked, "Who's Marsha?"

"She was the Death Eternal before you. Joel tried to save her but she was killed. He set this up thinking she'd be the one here," Clara replied. She turned, going through the door saying "Down." I followed.

I couldn't help but wonder what Marsha would have done differently, had she been here.

We went down a staircase, and then came out into a room that was more beautiful than any other place I'd ever stayed in my two hundred year life. The first room was just a sitting room, but the artificial light made it feel like home already. Off of that was a kitchen, complete with food and everything. There was also a bedroom and a bathroom, but the room I loved best was my Séance room.

It was pitch black in there, but for some reason I could see. I supposed seeing in the dark was another "power" of mine. But I'd never been able to before…?

"Clara," I asked, "why can I see?"

"Now that you know who you are and you're with others like you," she explained, "your abilities are just going to keep coming until you're pretty damn powerful, like me."

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

"Ten years," she said, "One of them with just Joel around."

She didn't seem to want to say more, so I looked around the room. Candles scattered the floor, and there were also some on a couple tables. A matchbook lay beside one of them. On the floor was a red star, painted there a while ago. I couldn't say why, but I felt at home there. I felt as though I'd always been here, and I didn't want to leave.

"This is amazing," I said.

"I couldn't say," Clara huffed. "I can't see."

"Oh. Right."

We left the room, closing the door with a soft click.

"So, girl, you better be ready for classes tomorrow," she said once she could see me again.

"I'll give it a shot, but I'm not one to sit still or take direction," I confessed.

She snorted. "None of us are. Why do you think we don't have a real teacher?"

"You haven't told me who this teacher is yet."

"Oh, right," she laughed. "You'll see, then."

I pretended to slap her.

"Night," she said. "Sleep well – in a real bed, in a real place, and not in an alley."

"Alleys could be comfortable!" I protested. "Once you got used to it."

"I never slept in one, so I couldn't tell you," she said.

"How'd you survive then?"

"I pretended to be a sorcerer, using my gifts to scare people. I got whatever I wanted until Joel took me away," she said. "He told everybody that I was a foolish girl playing tricks on them. He's rather persuasive."

"And why didn't the Raze get you?" I asked. "Surely they'd know you were there."

"Sure they did," she laughed, "but like I said, I was good at my powers. They've been trying to kill me for a while. I think I'm number one on their hit list."

"Good luck with that," I scoffed.

"Night," she repeated, leaving the floor.

"Bye, then," I said. I heard the door click shut and I knew she was gone.

I did just what she said.

Content, I laid down in the soft, white, cozy bed.

It was much better than an alleyway.


	4. Chapter Three

I woke up the next morning feeling very…peaceful. That sleep was the best I'd gotten in years. The bed really was comfortable, but some alarm clock on the bedside table was blaring at me and it wouldn't shut up until I got out of bed. Groaning, I gave it a death-look.

It didn't react.

After showering I realized I was still wearing my crummy old street clothes. Rifling through my closet, I found that this camp or whatever had supplied me with a new wardrobe. Who went to all this trouble? Honestly, were we really worth all that much?

So after I got dressed, I went outside to find Clara waiting for me. "Finally," she groaned. "Took you long enough!"

Before I even had the chance to speak, Dani jumped on my back. I grunted, trying to hold her up, but I failed and we both went crashing to the ground. She laughed, getting up, and scraping off her jeans. Instead of the deadly black it was yesterday, he hair was a dark red with a blonde streak in it. "Your hair's different," I noted.

She scowled. "My hair was originally blonde, you know. I wanted to dye it but we didn't hair any hair dye. Jonah, being the Mind Eternal that he is, made some for me. It didn't work, and now everyday my hair changes colour."

I couldn't help but break down laughing. Dani tried to get me to stop, but her attempts were futile. Eventually she just crossed her arms and scowled, but you could tell she was fighting laughter.

Fane came out of the dorms just then. When he saw us, his eyebrows raised slightly, but then he just shrugged as if he was used to it. "Today's the day," he said when we'd all calmed down.

"Today's the day for what?" I asked, getting off the ground.

"The five of us are here," he replied. "The god or goddess should be coming down and speaking to us."

I had forgotten all about the deity above. Would they come down? Were we that important? If we were still around then I supposed that we were, but what would they say?

"It's only the four of us, Fane," Clara said, trying to lift the tension. "Where's Jonah?"

"Oh, he's in class already," Dani said, waving her hand as if dismissing the idea.

"Already?" I exclaimed. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, he goes early every morning," Fane said. "He's the Mind Eternal."

"Exactly!" Clara sighed. "It's not his fault. What choice does he have in being a nerd?"

We all laughed again, before Fane checked a simple watch on his wrist and sighed. "We have two minutes left. We really should go. You know how X feels when we're late."

"Who's X?" I asked, though I had a feeling I already knew.

"The teacher," Clara replied. "You know, the one you've been waiting for."

I narrowed my eyes at her as we all made our way over to the School. "You know, the one you won't tell me about. I've never been to school, you know, so whatever happens here is going to be considered normal for me."

"Don't worry about it," Dani said. "All the knowledge that comes before sixteen – or tenth grade – is already in your mind. You just don't know it yet."

"Let me guess," I grumbled, "that's from that non-showing god."

"Or goddess," Fane said.

I just looked at him until he raised his hands in surrender.

We reached the School, and Clara opened the door without a sound, holding it open for me. "Uh-uh," I said. "You're going in first."

"Oh, relax," Dani laughed, going ahead and disappearing into the building. I sighed, following her. I found myself in another one of those lobbies, with a sign telling me where to go. It said to go to the Classroom to go up one level, so I took the door labeled "UP" and followed instructions.

The classroom was quite large. One table dominated most of the space, with five chairs. Dani and Jonah were already sitting in two of them. At the front of the room was a large whiteboard, and at the back cabinet upon cabinet.

But I haven't even gotten to the robot yet.

Oh, yeah, there was a robot. It was about my height, with a gray, square body and head. Its eyes were two beady looking objects, and its mouth a rectangular black hole. It had two feet and two arms, both so it could walk and carry things like a human.

Clara and Fane walked in behind me, Clara giving me a light bump on the shoulder as if to hurry me along. I did so, taking the end seat next to her. The robot, apparently called X (which made more sense now) walked out from behind a desk and to the middle of the whiteboard, gazing at us with seemingly sad eyes. "Hello," he sighed when he saw me. "Another one? Really?"

I just looked at Clara. She gave me a fake smile.

"Alas, what has Joel done to me now?" he grumbled. I don't know why I called the robot a "he" but it seemed kinder than "it."

"Joel built him," Clara whispered. I nodded.

"Today we're going to have a language lesson," X said. "You don't know this, but each of you speak a different language perfectly without flaws. This is 'programmed' into you, I suppose you would say."

He walked to Jonah, who was sitting at the far end of the table and said something intelligible. It sounded like a completely different language, which I suppose it was because Jonah responded in the same language. After speaking, he looked surprised that he had managed to reply. "You can speak Mandarin," X said, sounding bored. "All Mind Eternals do. You'd think someone would add something different once in a while, but no."

I was beginning to understand what Clara had been talking about.

Then he went to Dani, speaking in a similar manner. We discovered she spoke Japanese, and Fane spoke Arabic.

When he moved onto Clara, she immediately said "Ya sé lo que hablo, gracias."

X sighed, almost resentfully, and then moved onto me. I raised my eyebrows at Clara, but she only said, "I've been speaking Spanish for over a hundred years. I knew it came too easy."

X looked down at me, as much as a robot can, and said "This is so tiring."

"Why are you here, then?" I replied.

He nodded, and then walked to the front of the room. It took me a while to realize that I had just spoken in French.

"How are we ever going to know which language we're speaking?" I asked Clara. "I didn't even realize I was."

"It just comes naturally after a while," she replied.

"Thus ends the language lesson," X said. "Now we're going on to a Magics lesson."

"Is this like normal school?" I whispered to Clara. "Because it doesn't seem normal. You don't have a 'Magics' lesson at normal schools, do you?"

"I wouldn't know," she said. "None of us but Dani went to school before this, and she only went to a fancy girls' school."

I had a feeling normal schools were a lot more normal.

"There are a few things that any Eternal can do," X said, but his robotic bored tone was so inappropriate for a subject like Magic. "Like telekinesis."

"We know," Clara said, looking at X with bored eyes. "You've told us all before."

I looked at her with raised eyebrows. She sighed, and then corrected, "You've told all of us but Hope."

"And that's why I'm telling you again!" X exclaimed. Seeing a robot have such feeling, as annoying as it was, was just strange. "Would you rather she live in ignorance of her abilities?"

Clara sighed again, leaning backwards into her chair. "I suppose not. But you don't have to make me look like the enemy."

X politely (or not so politely) ignored her words. "Back to what I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," he said instead, shooting Clara a rude glare, "you can do basic forms of Magic, and advanced forms in areas you specialize in." He was pacing the room, but then he stopped in front of me. "Care to try?"

"But she doesn't know how," Clara interjected before I could say just that.

X sighed as best a robot could do. But once again, before I could say a word, Jonah raised his hand like the studious student he was. Surprised he had such good manners, X called on him like a normal classroom. "May I give her a demonstration, sir?" Jonah asked.

X waved his hand dismissively. "Fine."

Clara was stopped from saying anymore against X. I realized that Jonah had figured out how to deal with her outbursts by now.

"All you have to do is concentrate," he instructed me. "Just think about what you want to do. It helps to think about what you want to do in another language for me."

I nodded, grateful for a straight explanation. Jonah outstretched his hand, narrowed his eyes at a pencil on X's desk. After about a second, the pencil was raised into the air.

"Excellent, Jonah," X said. "See how long you can keep it there. All of you better be able to do this, too. Lift something else and keep it there."

Clara lifted up a pen in her pocket with her hand and held it up. X glared at her until she let it go, but the pen remained in the air, suspended by her mind. Jonah mentally brought his pencil over right in front of him, and Dani focused on a eraser on X's desk, while Fane had already brought over another pencil.

I thought about what Jonah had told me, and I thought about the red ballpoint pen on X's desk – or un stylo rouge, if you want to think about it in French – and focused all my thoughts on lifting it. To my surprise, it was raised into the air so easily I almost made it crash into the ceiling before I regained control and brought it over in front of me.

"Nice," Clara congratulated me. X had gone back over to his desk, rooting for a pencil or pen we hadn't stolen yet. "It took me a lot longer to master telekinesis."

I shrugged, twirling the pen around. "Maybe something else will be harder."

It was her turn to shrug. "We do telekinesis, basic spells…we even had a lesson on Charms once, but X didn't go into a lot of detail, so…"

"What's a Charm do?" I asked. We began to have a sword-fight with our pens in midair.

"Wish I could tell you," she sighed. "He didn't go into any detail, he just said they're out there."

"Charms enhance your magic," Jonah replied. He was making his pencil touch the ceiling and then the floor repeatedly, like it was doing gymnastics.

I knocked the pen cap off Clara's pen and it went flying, but she managed to take control of that too and she saved it from hitting the ground. "Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you," X called. He was still searching for a pen. "Whoever keeps their pen off the ground the longest gets a slab of my mocha cake."

Immediately Jonah stopped doing pen exercises. Clara mentally put the cap back on her pen and drew out of our swordfight. Dani and Fane were equally still. "What's his mocha cake?" I asked, trying to stifle laughter.

"It's delicious, believe me," Clara replied. "You want some."

For the next hour, we stayed like that, trying to keep our objects levitating. Once an hour and a minute had passed, however, Fane's fell to the ground with a small sound.

He cursed under her breath. "I lost concentration," he sighed.

"Go down to the Practice Room," X ordered him.

He stood up, going back to the door. "Dani's going to get it," he said, before leaving.

Clara was the next to go. She seemed a little more upset, whispering to me, "I never get the cake!" but she went where Fane had gone anyways.

I hate to admit it, but I only got third. About five minutes after Clara had left, something inside my mind just snapped and I saw the pen fall to the ground. "Impressive for a first try. But not good enough," X told me.

I picked up the pen and put it back on X's desk before going down to the 'Practice Room.' When I was back in the lobby, I saw a sign saying go straight for the Practice Room, so I went straight and found myself in a room even larger than the classroom.

On the left side was a basketball court, the middle a swimming pool, and the right had a tennis court. In the front, where I was standing, were two locker rooms – one for girls, one for guys – and a cabinet which probably held equipment. To the back was a small 25 meter track, and there was even a door going into a back room.

Clara and Fane were on the basketball court, playing one-on-one. "How is this possible?" I asked. "This room is way too big for the building's size."

"Magic!" Clara waved her hands mysteriously and almost got whacked in the head with a basketball. Glaring at Fane, she tossed it towards the net and landed it in with a whoosh.

"I love magic," I sighed.

The door behind me opened and Jonah came out. "Dani got the cake, like always," he said sadly. "One more minute and I would've…"

"What is the deal with this cake?" I exclaimed. "It's just cake."

They all stared at me like I'd just dropped from another planet. "It's not 'just cake'!" Clara replied. "It's so good…it melts in your mouth and tastes…just…amazing."

"There's got to be magic in it," Dani reasoned, coming through the door. "There's no way a robot could make a cake that good without some."

I nodded, slowly realizing that everything in this place involved magic in some way.

X followed Dani, coming into the room. "Today…today we shall do a circuit," he decided. "But first, we teach Hope the change-your-clothes trick."

Clara pumped her fist in the air. "Oh, I love this!"

Fane's face went beet red at the words. "What's this?" I asked nervously.

"You learn how to change your clothes with magic," Jonah explained. "It's handy for circuits."

"All you do is use your magic like before," Dani put in. "Just…be careful. After Fane's incident, we'd hate for that to happen again."

"Fane's incident?"

Nobody wanted to explain, so reluctantly I didn't press them.

"Think about your gym clothes," Clara said.

"I don't have gym clothes."

"Okay, one second then." Clara closed her eyes and whispered something. A sort of shimmer surrounded her, but her clothes shifted, changing from the shirt and jeans she had been wearing to a baggy violet tee-shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants. I blinked in surprise, but then caught myself because I really shouldn't be surprised by something that trivial after everything I'd seen.

"Now you go," she encouraged. "It's easy once you get the hang of it."

I sighed, wishing that if I managed this I wouldn't end up in something hideous, embarrassing, or…well, I didn't want to think about it.

"Okay," I whispered. Please change my clothes, I thought. I'd love to be in a purple tee-shirt and baggy grey sweatpants. Please.

I felt a slight tug, and then nothing.

I looked down slowly and sighed in relief. I was in a purple tee-shirt and baggy grey sweatpants. "Your shoes," Clara pointed out. I was still in flats. I thought about changing those to a pair of runners, and they did.

"You're good," Fane said, slightly jealous. "Mine didn't go so smoothly."

"Let's go off that topic," I suggested, realizing that my fears had come true for him.

"So what we're going to do is this," X said, walking out in front of me, Dani and Jonah. Clara and Fane came over and joined us. "First, two of you will start on the basketball court, two of you in the tennis court, and one of you with me in the back. We're going to keep rotating until you've all had a turn with me, and then we'll find Hope's weapon of choice, or weapons."

I tried to ignore that last sentence because it would only distract me.

"Hope and Fane, start on the basketball. Clara and Jonah, tennis for you two. Dani, come with me." X walked right into the back room, and Dani followed. What was back there?

"Start!" X yelled and closed the door, leaving him and Dani inside. Fane and I shrugged, and then we both ran over to the basketball court and played one-on-one for about ten minutes. X came back out, along with Dani and told us to rotate. Fane went to the tennis courts, Clara went with X, and I stayed on the basketball court playing Dani.

It stayed that way, me being the last to have a turn with X. When he called me in, I wasn't scared, because all of the others had gone in without difficulty.

There wasn't much in the room. It was wide and open, but on the sides were bookshelves and cases filled with random items – cups, books, wood pieces, picture frames, lamps, you name it.

"I'm going to throw these at you," X said naturally, as if he did this everyday…which he probably did, actually, so never mind. "Don't let anything hit you. You can use magic, you can dodge them, but if three items hit you you're out."

"These things can hurt, though," I protested, casting a wary eye to the steel padlock. "What if I get hurt? That's got to be illegal or something."

He looked at me, almost…amused? "There aren't any laws here."

Lifting the first teacup off the shelf, he tossed it at me. Using the telekinesis I learned earlier I knocked it out of the way mentally and heard it smash in the corner. I ducked the next one, and when he threw a lamp I telekinetically moved that one, too.

But he began to throw them more quickly and I began to realize that I couldn't keep up using just telekinesis. I remembered that Clara had told me we should be able to do basic spells. What if I could just explode it? Cast some fiery ball at it?

I looked at the object in his hand, that fearsome padlock, and thought, Destroy that! I outstretched my hand and as it was tossed through the air a black ball came out of my hand, wrapping around it and evaporating it.

I began to destroy more that way. I still used my telekinesis, but after discovering something more natural is was easy to use those black spheres. I also deduced they were black because black is the colour of Death. The others probably had different colours than mine.

We reached the end of the shelf. I had only gotten hit once on the shoulder with a block of wood I hadn't seen coming. "Good job," he said. "You discovered more magic with no education about it. Impressive."

I sighed. I was pretty tired after doing all that continually, but I was also pretty proud of myself. I thought I was doing fairly well for my first day, or at least what was expected. I was also pretty happy that I was handling all this information about me and not going crazy. I mean, just 24 hours ago I wanted to strangle Clara.

We walked back out. "Weapon time!" he called, and everybody stopped the circuit. X opened the cabinet I had seen before, but I was wrong – it didn't contain equipment. There was some gear, sure, but most of the space was taken up by weapons. There were swords, spears, daggers, bows and arrows, knives, machetes, and even a crossbow.

"Pick the one that feels right," X advised me. He walked over to the cabinet and removed the spear first. "Toss this across the room."

"I don't know how to handle one of those," I said, eying it wearily.

"It won't matter if it's what you're made for," Jonah answered. "Otherwise, try not to hit us." Fane's face went red again and I wondered just what had happened on his first day.

I looked at him. "Thanks," I said sarcastically. I took the spear from him, but I knew it wasn't "mine." It didn't feel right. I had no idea how to hold it. I tried to get it right, but when I tried to throw it I lost my grip and it just fell to the floor. I picked it up and gave it back to X.

"I don't think this is it," I replied sheepishly.

"No, I don't think so," he agreed. "Try these."

This time he gave me a bow. I was a little better at that, but my arrow nearly hit Jonah in the face. After deflecting it with his magic, he exclaimed, "What did I say about not hitting me?"

"Sorry," I replied, my face flushing. "I couldn't help it."

He acted like he was offended but I could tell he wasn't. It was probably this difficult for all of them.

After that I tried the sword. That was fairly easy, but I still couldn't get it right. After a moments consideration, X handed me two daggers.

Those I got. They felt just like an extension of my hand, and as I threw it across the room at the back room door like X told me to, I hit the target perfectly. "That's your weapon," he decided. "Daggers. Boring, like the others."

"I use daggers or knives, too," Fane said. "Jonah and Clara use swords and Dani uses a bow."

"You couldn't have gotten anything more exciting," X grumbled, but we all ignored him.

The rest of the day passed without incident. I felt a feeling of truly belonging, just like I had yesterday when Clara had explained everything.

It was bliss.

A couple of weeks passed. I learned to control my magic better, and was able to call the other Eternals true friends. Dani even time-traveled once, accidentally, five minutes into the future. That was strange for all of us, because she managed to get back and then we had two Dani's for a while until one of them inexplicably disappeared.

But the god – or goddess – didn't appear.

Not one sign, not one entrance, not one bit of hope to say they were still there. Slowly, we all began to realize that they had probably abandoned us. My being there didn't help. And we all came to terms with it, but we felt like we had been let down.

Because even though nobody said it, we knew now that we'd never have our purpose in life. It seemed we were doomed to be hunted by Raze forever.

But one day changed our views on that, because we learned that the Raze weren't our only fears. X had been educating us about them, but he'd stopped suddenly and sighed.

"I'm over-riding programming here," he told us gravely. "Joel didn't want you to know this, but I deem it necessary."

"You can do that?" Clara asked, but a touch of fear laced her normally confident tone. She respected Joel, loved him even, so something he didn't want her to know probably scared her more than she'd let on.

"There are more evil beings than the Raze," he continued, ignoring her question, which also meant his answer was a 'yes.' "There are lesser demons that are still dangerous."

"Like what?" I asked nervously.

"Imps. Dragons. Others without names," he said, shrugging. "If you can fight Raze, you can fight those. But they do exist."

"Why didn't you tell us that?" Clara asked, spreading out her hands, the fear gone. "That's nothing."

"Because the Raze command them."

That was what struck home. The Raze were bad enough – I hadn't actually fought one yet, but I'd had several training attacks when I was learning to use my daggers properly – but if they could command new legions of demons then we were in trouble.

"That's why we need the god to come down here!" Dani exclaimed. "They're not coming. We need them so we know what to do!"

I'd never seen her so mad. Dani was normally calm, going with the flow, just like time, her domain. "It's okay, Dani," I said, trying to calm her down. "They might come. And if they don't, we'll figure it out ourselves."

Clara was nodding grimly, Fane along with her, but Jonah was just looking afraid. Dani slumped back into her chair, defeat across her face.

"I thought you should know," X said before anyone else could start shouting. "How you deal with it, that's your problem."

He stopped talking about demons and refreshed our minds on the four poisons that could kill us. "Excuse me, sir," Jonah said, his voice quavering slightly, "can any of the lesser demons, as you called them, use the poisons?"

X shook his head. "Unless the Raze have figured out how, no."

"But don't the Raze serve somebody else?" Clara asked, shifting in her seat uncomfortably, trying to hide any fear that was coming back. "Who is that?"

"The Raze serve other Raze," was the only explanation she was getting. "Anything else is a direct programming violation and I would be forced to self-destruct."

Every time she asked a similar question, that was his response. Eventually, she leaned back, hissing, "I don't care if you self-destruct," but I think she did care, slightly.

After all, Joel had built X.

And what could we really do about it? At least we knew the information now. That was something.

But the god still hadn't come. "Dani's right, though," I said finally as we were in the middle of another pen-lifting exercise. "We do need the god to come."

"Or goddess," Fane interjected.

"Or goddess," I corrected myself after shooting him a look. "We don't know what else to do without them. They're supposed to help us, aren't they?"

"Yes, they are!" Dani cried, glad someone was agreeing with her. All our pens had crashed to the floor. "We need to know our purpose in life, and we're all here now. They should come!"

"We just have to wait," Jonah said, but he wasn't heard.

"Maybe you could do a Séance, Hope!" Dani said over him. "Call on her, you know."

I had only attempted one Séance. X had come to my Séance room and together I'd learned how to go into a trance and summon spirits. On his instruction, I got Albert Einstein to stand in the middle of the red star with me. All the old man had done was complain that X always made people try to summon him. I wondered what "other people" he had been talking about.

"They're not dead," I argued. "I can't."

Dani grumbled, muttering something under her breath. I didn't really want to know what she said, anyway.

"Pick up your pens. I'll give you all cake if you just be quiet."

That was the end of the conversation.

But not the end of our thoughts.

 


	5. Chapter Four

Another two weeks went by. I'd been at this camp for a month, now, and learned more here than I ever could've on my own. The daggers became natural. I got extremely proficient at magic. And I even won cake once…everyone was right. It did taste good.

Most times, though, Dani won the cake. She was definitely the strongest of us here, or at least, she had the most control of her magic. At fighting, she was average, but when she was using magic you couldn't beat her. I would've thought Clara would be like that because she'd been here the longest, but she had been right when she told me she wasn't a school person. She purposefully tried not to do what she was told.

Fane and I often dueled together with our daggers or double knives, and although he was good, it came out in a draw most times. He said this was normal, because "we're both Eternals, and we're both using the same weapons. How could we beat each other is we're equals?"

And Jonah definitely knew the most out of anyone here. He was constantly reading, sprouting facts about anything and everything, and attentively trying to do the tasks set out for us by X. Magic-wise, he was okay, and he was an alright fighter, but mostly he preferred reading.

It was the morning, and as usual, I was running late. I never set my alarm, and most of the time I woke with the sun. That was a mistake, but I never learned.

After magically changing my clothes (it was handy) I ran downstairs and saw everyone waiting in the lobby. I raised my eyebrows at them, because even Jonah was here. I looked outside, trying to see what was the matter, when I saw it was raining buckets.

"It's just rain, guys," I said. "What's the deal?"

"It barely rains," Dani replied. "We don't like it."

"You just walk through it," I answered, trying not to laugh. "It doesn't hurt you."

"Still…" But Dani opened the door and we all went outside in the rain.

After about a second we were all drenched. My hair was soaked, sticking to my face, and I was glad I didn't wear any make-up today. Dani wasn't so lucky – her mascara was running like it was on a race. "Jonah, you're making me water-proof mascara next time!" she yelled at him.

Jonah looked back. His glasses were spattered with raindrops, so much he could barely see. "Umm, sure." Jonah could probably list all the ingredients and steps for making mascara, but he wouldn't understand the need for it to be water-proof.

Thunder boomed above us. I thought it was cool, and I didn't mind, but Dani screamed and she ran faster.

But then the lightning came. One white tendril came down, right in front of me. I stumbled backwards as it hit the ground, blackening the grass. "Hope!" Clara called in front of me.

I managed to get up in the slippery, muddy grass, but I ran around the spot where the lightning had struck. It strikes twice, right? Or is that a myth? I couldn't remember, I was too freaked out. Lightning shouldn't have come that fast…it wasn't natural…

"It's magic!" I yelled. "It's not right!"

Dani had reached the building and she ran inside, Jonah getting in after her. Fane ran in as well. Clara was standing by the door, waiting for me. I almost got there.

But I didn't.

This time the lightning struck again, and it didn't miss me.

I heard a scream before I couldn't hear anymore. I felt a charge run through me, electrifying me. I fell to the ground, my breath sounding raspy in my head.

I opened my eyes but all I saw was white. Nothing, nothing…just white. Was I dying? It wouldn't matter, I'd just come back, right? But I didn't die this way…what if I didn't come back?

Flashes of light filled my vision and I felt myself…floating. I was levitating in the air, although how I knew that, I don't know. I still didn't hear anything and I saw only white. I tasted a coppery taste in my mouth, like blood.

A flash of purple went into my vision. Then green came along, followed by blue. I felt…peaceful as they went by, even if I didn't know what they were. I tried to speak but my mouth wouldn't open.

You are my Vessel.

A woman's voice entered my mind. I wanted to reply but I couldn't even get my thoughts together. A Vessel? What Vessel? More importantly, who's Vessel?

With the last flash of colour, the calm dissipated and a searing pain flashed through my head. This time, I managed to scream. I felt something on my wrist but I couldn't lift it or look down at it. I was paralyzed.

"Stop!" I yelled in pain. After that, I just kept screaming. My head was on fire. I couldn't think straight. I didn't know what was going on, only that everything hurt. Who was doing this?

And then everything stopped.

The white disappeared and I could see the sky again. Rain was still falling down on me, obscuring my vision. Whatever was keeping me suspended in the air vanished and I fell to the ground with an uncomfortable thump.

I felt barely alive. I had a terrible headache and my wrist felt strange, but I wasn't sure why. Clara was leaning over me, and everyone else had come back outside as well.

The rain stopped and the sun came out. It was magic…

At that point, my thoughts vanished and I died.

After going through the 'next dimension' and all that, I opened my eyes again. I was still in the field, but my headache was gone. However, my wrist still felt strange.

"Hope!" Clara was yelling. Her voice slowly registered into my mind as the rest of my senses woke up. "Hope!"

"What…What happened?" I croaked, my throat dry and my voice raspy.

"You should tell us," she countered. I slowly sat up, and then got a good look at my wrist. It wasn't broken, sprained, twisted, or hurt in anyway like I'd thought it might be. No, instead someone or something had tattooed a V onto it, covering the whole section where you can see your veins. I couldn't see them anymore. Instead, I saw thick, dark, black ink.

"Vessel…," I whispered. "She said I was her Vessel."

"What's a Vessel?" Jonah asked, disturbed that he didn't know something.

"I don't know," I groaned. "I don't even know who it was. She killed me, though, so I don't think all that highly of her."

"Well, it's nice to know that. Thank you, Vessel."

Nobody had spoken, but the same voice that had spoken to me earlier just rang out across the clearing. We turned around and saw her standing in the middle of the field. Slowly she walked over to us. Her hair was a shining blonde and her eyes a sparkling blue. She was dressed in elegant red and gold robes that draped over her fit body.

"Who are you?" Dani asked. Her voice contained fear and curiousity at the same time.

"I am Lêshä," the woman shrugged. "Thought you would know."

Jonah's eyes widened. He walked away from me and went over to Lêshä Then he surprised everyone in the clearing – he bowed to her. "Oh, thank you!" Lêshä called with glee. "Thank you!"

Dani gave a sharp inhale, and she and Fane both bowed as well. Clara followed suit, but she didn't leave my side. I would've bowed if I could've, but sadly, I wasn't in the best of shape for it.

Even if she was the goddess, I didn't like her.

"Rise," she commanded, and they all did. "Now, Vessel, why don't you like me?"

"For one," I growled, not really caring if she killed me – I don't die, remember? – "you keep calling me 'Vessel.'"

"Because that's your name." She seemed taken aback that I didn't like that.

"My name is Hope."

"But you're my Vessel." Now she just seemed confused. What kind of goddess was she? No wonder she was late. Maybe she forgot to set her alarm clock, too.

"What is a Vessel?" I asked. "And why didn't you ask me before you gave me a tattoo?"

"You already have a tattoo," she shrugged. "I didn't think you'd mind."

"I don't have another tattoo."

Dani sighed. "I do. I have a clock, on my left shoulder."

Lêshä's face brightened. "See? I knew there was a tattoo here."

I sighed, just as Dani had. This was not what any of us were expecting when we were going to see the goddess that had made us. "So what's a Vessel?"

"Oh! Right! Well, you were the ideal target…so I connected us. You can talk to me anyway you wish, and I can send messages through you!" she exclaimed brightly, as if being connected to her was the best gift ever. "You needed the tattoo. Couldn't help that."

I let out a long breath. "We can talk anytime?"

She nodded her affirmative.

I ran my fingers through my still-drenched hair. Dani's mascara fiasco was gone, though, so that was a good thing. "I would've appreciated it if you'd asked me first."

She seemed appalled. "You might've said no, and then I would've had to do it anyways."

"But what's the point? Why do you need to talk to us?" I asked. I looked at my friends, like, You can pitch in anytime now.

"Because you're my creations," she replied. "A mother wants to keep in contact with her children, doesn't she?"

Even my mother, who wanted me dead, was better than her.

"What is our purpose?" Dani jumped in, taking my suggestion to have someone else talk. "What do you want us to do?"

"Why, I want you to get rid of the Raze," she said immediately. "And I know how to do it."

We all opened our mouths in shock. I even stood up, ignoring the pain in my joints. I felt like an old person with arthritis or something. "How?" I asked.

"Where does the Raze's power come from?" she asked us.

We shrugged.

She sighed. "Wow. Okay. It comes from the Rock."

"That's a boring name," Clara commented. "Okay, great, it comes from a rock. What's that supposed to mean?"

"If the Rock is destroyed, the Raze are destroyed," she explained. "But you need to destroy it with Bläsa's ring."

"What's Bläsa?" Clara asked.

Jonah furrowed his brow. "I've never heard that before."

Lêshä laughed. "It's not a what, it's a who…although he's so inhumane you could call him a what, if you wanted to, I guess."

Clara raised her eyebrows, and gestured to Lêshä, telling her to continue the explanation. "Oh, right!" Lêshä exclaimed. "I forgot what I was saying. Anyways, Bläsa is the exact opposite of me. He's truly evil and he commands the Raze. In his ring he keeps the Raze's true power. No one knows where he is, though."

Dani blinked in surprise. She seemed to be okay taking in all this new information, even pleased that she had a purpose, but Lêshä's last sentence bothered her. "But you're a goddess. How do you not know where he is?"

"Weren't you listening, silly?" she replied, chastising Dani. "He's a god. His powers are equal to mine."

Dani didn't reply. She wasn't impressed by the goddess she'd spent so long waiting for, and neither was I. "So you want us to destroy the Raze? We have to find this Bläsa, take his ring – which he's probably wearing – and then find the Rock and destroy it?"

Lêshä nodded happily. "You got it! See, I knew I was right when I picked my Vessel."

Dani narrowed her eyes at the goddess, although I wasn't sure why. So maybe she was a little…eccentric, but still. I'd have thought Dani would be a little happier to see who she'd been waiting for.

"I have to go now," Lêshä said. "I can't stay corporeal for that long. Remember, though, Vessel – you can talk to me whenever you want."

"You'll be able to hear all my thoughts?" I exclaimed. "I don't want that!"

"Not all of them," she quickly said. "Only is you want me to, normally. But I wouldn't be so quick in turning down my gift."

"But I –,"

"She wants it," Dani interrupted me. "Don't do anything. She wants the gift."

I closed my mouth and looked at Dani in surprise, but she didn't look back.

Lêshä nodded, her lips pursed. "Goodbye, my Eternals."

"Will you come back?" Fane asked, finally speaking up.

"I may," Lêshä called. She was growing transparent, slowly disappearing. "The Vessel can call me. It would do you good to keep her alive."

"But the rest of us don't matter?" Dani asked in wonder. The goddess had made it sound like that.

"You all matter," Lêshä amended quickly. And then she was gone. I realized only then she had been standing on the blackened patch of grass.

We all stood there for a while. Finally, Dani rolled her shoulders backwards once and then marched right past us all into the school building. "What's wrong with her?" Fane asked, coming over to us. He offered his hand to me and I took it gladly, standing up with his help.

"I don't know, but something Her Majesty said bothered her," Jonah replied, coming over as well.

I was still staring at my Vessel tattoo. "Why didn't she choose Dani?" I asked, actually understanding what Dani was thinking. I knew because if we had switched places, I'd have thought the same thing.

"I don't know, why'd she choose any of us?" Clara said, shrugging away my question. She wasn't processing it fully, but Fane was.

"She is the strongest, magically," he agreed. "This Vessel thing is all magic."

I nodded, glad he understood me. "I'm only average. So why not her?"

"She meant to mark the one with the tattoo," Jonah said, realizing our words had deeper meaning. "Maybe she…I hate to say it, but maybe she accidentally gave it to you."

"Maybe this is Dani's responsibility and I shouldn't have it," I agreed with him. It made me feel weak. It made me feel less, less sure of myself, bringing on self-doubt, but he was probably right. "It's a mistake."

Clara sighed in frustration. "What?"

"Dani's jealous," Fane said, spelling it out for her. "She's the strongest of all of us with her magic, and this connection with Lêshä…she feels she should have it, not Hope."

"And Lêshä said she'd use the one with the tattoo," I finished for him. "But it happened to me. You saw how forgetful she is. Maybe she accidentally gave it to me."

"So that's Dani's, truly?" Clara gasped. "And she knows it?"

"Dani's been waiting for a long time to see the goddess," Jonah agreed. We began to make our way to the School building, and even if that was the last place any of us wanted to be (especially with Dani there. That would get awkward) but we had to go. It's not like you can skip school here. "It's a great disappointment for her."

We didn't say anymore. As we entered the classroom, we saw Dani had taken the spot on the end, as far away from us as she could get. She didn't even look at us. I wanted to say something, anything, but what could I say?

So I walked by her and sat down in my usual spot.

We told X what had happened and he took it all in stride, if robots have stride. Immediately we went down to the Practice Room and started a circuit. I was playing Dani basketball. Before we started, I tried to say, "Look, I'm sorry for –,"

She snorted, interrupting me, and then ran right past me, scoring a basket. That was it. I was too angry at her to try to apologize again. I had just tried to make things better, to find out what I could do, and she had just ran away.

We played the foulest basketball game I ever had, even though I'd only played about five. By the time Fane came out of the back room, we were drenched in sweat. I rotated to the tennis courts and left Fane with a warning about Dani's temper.

"She'll get over it," he whispered before I went away.

"I hope so," I mumbled under my breath. As angry as I was at her – I didn't want to be a Vessel. She could have the power! – she was my friend, and I wanted my friend back.

I played Clara tennis and then played Dani again. She hit the ball with such force a few times my racket flew right out of my hand. She only smiled gleefully when I rubbed my wrist in pain.

"I'm sorry, okay? I'd give you the power!" I yelled as I tried to return the ball she had just served.

"You were given the power! I'm the strongest!"

I couldn't get her to talk again. She was being petty, and it bothered me. It bothered me that she wouldn't let me try to talk some sense into her. It also angered me that she thought it was my fault.

Once I went into the back room, X said, "You're going to have to do better if you want to be the Vessel. Average isn't good enough anymore."

And that was it. I was done with it all.

"Don't talk to me that way!" I snapped. I could practically hear the power coursing through me in my ears. "I didn't ask for this. I don't want this!"

"But you do!" he yelled back. "You don't get a choice."

"There's always a choice!" I inhaled and exhaled several times before saying, "It was just taken away from me."

X remained silent for a while. "You must understand what I'm saying. The Raze will try to come after you more than the others. They'll want to sever the link you have to your goddess."

I grumbled. "This is going to ruin my life. And I don't want it. I'll give it away. I'll give it away to anyone. Dani can handle it better than I can."

"No," X said. I was surprised he was being this serious with me. "No, she can't. You were chosen for a reason. Come to terms with it or die."

"I can't die."

"You can."

"I am not going to die!" After saying those words, I felt such an anger pulse through my body and mind I couldn't contain it. I gave a scream and it all exploded everywhere. Black energy reached out to the shelves, tearing them down. The objects on them – which kept coming back, no matter how many times you destroyed them – disappeared or were burnt and turned to ashes. Only X was safe because he seemed to have put some shield up around him.

Finally the power calmed down. I sighed, letting it all go. It had felt good, wonderful, even, to use such magic, but it wasn't serving me a purpose so I disbanded it. The tendrils vanished. X dropped his magical, invisible shield. The room was in tatters, but I had no doubt it would fix itself again.

"That was impressive," he grudgingly said. "You can go now."

I left and went back to playing basketball.

The rest of the day passed awkwardly. Dani refused to talk to any of us, and although I was constantly assured she'd be better tomorrow, I was worried she'd never be "better." She had a grudge against me. I'd stolen her chance at being the goddesses favourite. There wasn't another.

Lying in my bed that night, I contemplated the whole day and its events, along with my new "powers." I had come to the conclusion that I was more powerful now, simply because I hadn't gotten tired all day. X had discovered this by the end of the day, too, and announced it to everybody. Dani got really angry then.

He'd also said we should get ready for a "surprise." He didn't say anymore, just that any day now he could spring this surprise without a moment's notice. Every time he warned us, we all glanced at each other nervously, except for Dani, who refused to make eye contact.

So, with the comfort of my bed around me, I thought about all of this. I contemplated it all, digested all the information I'd learned. I began to wonder if things could get worse around here with all this drama. And finally, my thoughts drifted back to when I was just a scared girl, wishing for death in a dark alleyway, starving and cold. Yes, things could get worse around here.

But one thought came rocketing to me. I don't want to die anymore.

I had accomplished the first thing everyone should do – I wanted to live.


	6. Chapter Five

Three weeks passed before the surprise was revealed. Dani grew cold, angry, and we almost never saw her. She didn't go to class anymore. X couldn't do anything about it, so I suppose my statement is amended – you can skip here. We tried to get her to talk to us, to get her back out of her room, but she wouldn't. Every time one of us got close we were blasted by her magic. She even knocked me out for a few minutes once, she was so angry.

"This Vessel thing hasn't even helped," I'd grumbled to Clara once she'd woke me up from my blasting. "We haven't needed Lêshä once."

"She feels it does," Jonah replied. "She wants the extra powers you got."

At least my other friends weren't acting the way she was. If they all left, I had a feeling my wish to live would vanish. They were my anchor. Lose them, and I lost myself.

So, the four of us were in school, but this time X said, "Dani needs to be here."

"We can't get her here," Clara argued. "Don't you think we've tried?"

It hurt to hear the strain in her voice, but it hurt even more because I felt the same way.

"Fine," X snapped. "Make me do all of the work." He hummed a little bit (I mean with electricity) and suddenly, a small window of shimmering light appeared beside him. A small picture appeared in the 'window'…it was Dani in her room, a book open in front of her.

She stood up, noticing us. "Get out."

Clara raised her hands defensively. "Hey, X summoned the window."

Dani grumbled. "What?" She folded her arms and stood sort of stoically.

"You all are going out on your fist raid," X announced. "My programming says like it or not, you're to go out on this date."

"What's a raid?" I asked, trying to ignore Clara (who was bouncing in her seat) or Dani (who had a shocked expression on her face, ruining the stoniness).

"A raid is like a team exercise," Jonah explained to me. "We all go out into a town together and have to retrieve certain items without getting killed once, or caught."

"You mean the Raze are going to be hunting us out there?" I exclaimed. Even though that freaked me out, it probably was a good lesson.

"Yes. They'll sense all five of you together, and even though they know why you're out there, they'll come after you," X said. "Be careful."

That was probably the nicest thing he ever said to any of us.

We all stood up. We had our weapons, and Dani was compelled to meet us at Joel's house. She looked different with a bow across her back – a lot more fierce. She didn't talk to us, though. If this was supposed to be a team exercise, I hated to think about how it was going to work without communication.

Clara bravely walked into her old mentor's house, although I could tell it was bittersweet. She approached a device at the back of the room, and asked X (who was at the door), "The coordinates? The list?"

X handed her a piece of paper which she quickly pocketed, careful not to rip it. I figured that had our instructions on it. X told her the coordinates, and she punched them into the device. "I could've taken us," Dani grumbled quietly, but I heard her.

I looked at her. "I know."

Then we were gone.

I felt weightless, then I felt like I had everybody's weight on me, and then I was standing again. I stumbled a bit, recovering from the effects. "That was weird," I whispered.

We were in an old western type town. Sand and dirt flew through the air as a wind flew, raising all our hair. Old wooden buildings lined the only street, which we currently stood in the middle of. It was clearly abandoned, but an ajar sign just behind us said, Welcome to Bloomtown. Beneath that, someone had spray-painted, Now get out!

Clara took out her list first. "We need to find and retrieve a spool of thread, a cup, a kite, a notebook, and a picture of three brown horses." We decided to split up to make it easier.

"Dani, can you do your invisible trick if things get tough?" Fane asked.

Apparently, Dani could hide herself and other people "in time," effectively rendering them invisible. She nodded tightly and then marched off, going into one of the buildings. "I'll look for the cup," I said, going into a building that looked like a restaurant.

I carefully opened the door. I had been right on my hunch – it had been a restaurant of sorts. But now, the tables were all knocked over and the chairs as well. Every step I took I ended up walking on something, mainly small bits of glass, but it resulted in me crunching the whole ways. Finally, lying sideways on the counter, was a cup.

I picked it up and went back outside. Clara was waiting outside another building with a picture frame in her hands. I tossed her the cup and she pocketed both items in her extremely large sweater that had about a million pockets in it.

Then I heard a growl. I swiveled around, and Clara did as well. There it was. Only one was standing there, but more would follow.

It's eyes were black and it's whole body was black as well. It stood out so much against the backdrop of the wooden buildings it was impossible to miss. Venom dripped from its mouth.

"RAZE!" Clara yelled, and at once Fane, Jonah, and Dani all sprang from their buildings. Dani was holding a kite, which she gave to Clara. Fane also handed over a notebook, but Jonah shook his head. We still needed the thread.

"I'll get it," I said. The Raze wasn't attacking us. It was just standing there. I ran across the town as fast as I could, and felt an arrow whistle by my ear. I looked back at Dani who shrugged.

"You should watch out," she told me and notched another arrow. I sighed. What else could I do? Her arrow had struck the Raze in the face, and it crumpled to the ground. It was only a matter of time before…

I opened the door to the building where the thread had to be. I ran right into about thirty Raze.

I stumbled away immediately, drawing my daggers. "Guys!" I yelled.

"Dani! Invisible!" Clara yelled. Immediately I went invisible. I would've reflected on how cool that was, but I was still standing in front of a crowd of Raze, so I couldn't. Using their confusion to my advantage, I stabbed one of them in the head, killing it instantly.

Others I decapitated. My friends were in here somewhere, accounting for the falling Raze I had nothing to do with, but I couldn't see them either. I drew my arm back to stab another Raze, but suddenly I could see my arm again.

I wasn't invisible.

The Raze grabbed my arm with its claws and I tried to bring up my other arm but it grabbed that too. I was helpless. "Dani!" I yelled.

"Sorry!" she yelled from somewhere. Everyone else was still invisible. "Guess you're on your own."

"Dani, what the hell?" That was Clara.

I heard a Raze behind me. It's breath was against my neck. It felt hot. I tried to kick backwards but I didn't hit anything. The Raze in front of me snorted, and I quickly found myself surrounded.

One of the Raze around me was chopped down, and I could feel someone's invisible hand trying to get me out of there. I resisted as well. "Come on!" It was Jonah.

The Raze behind me realized where he was and growled. I didn't see him do anything to Jonah. But I felt him drop to the floor. The invisibility wore off, and I saw he was drenched in some kind of liquid. Cyanide. Recalling what Clara had said, cyanide knocked us out for hours.

The Raze closed in on me, completely ignoring Jonah. I thrashed, I kicked, and I even tried to bite, but it was no good. My daggers had fallen to the floor by now.

"Settle down," one of them hissed in a raspy voice. He brought his face down to my arm, and when I gave a cry, he bit me.

Searing pain shot up my arm. I wasn't worried, because wounds healed fast with me. But this one wasn't. It should go numb and then heal itself, but it didn't.

Arsenic.

They had arsenic in their venom, rendering my wounds to heal at a normal speed. I cried out in the pain. "You shouldn't have done that!" another Raze cried. "She needs to be alive."

The Raze pointed to Jonah, still unconscious on the floor. "Take that one. He's uninjured."

Another Raze lifted up Jonah and slung him across his back. "Bläsa!" one cried. "Take us! We have two!"

A male's voice, no doubt Bläsa's, swept across the town. I was in too much pain, but I managed to get out, "There's one more."

"I want to come with you!" Dani was running back up to us. "Let me come with you!"

"Kill her," a Raze rasped. I was on the verge of blacking out. Is this how everyone else felt?

"No! Let me speak to Bläsa. I want to join you."

Those words would haunt me to my grave. Even through my agony, I knew what she was trying to do. Dani was joining the dark side. She was going evil.

"Fine," another Raze sighed. Clara and Fane were still fighting, but I was pretty sure they couldn't get here in time. "We don't have time for this. Bläsa, take us."

And then we were gone.

I tried to stay awake, but before I could see where they were taking us, I blacked out.


	7. Chapter Six

I'm in that dimension again. Who is it this time that's coming for me? Who is it that's died and coming to see me here?

She slowly comes towards me. She's small. She can only be ten, maybe eleven. Who is it? I know. It's Fiara. "Hello, Hope," she whispers in her small voice. She died of sickness when she was only ten. It hurt all of us. I was twelve at the time.

"Hi, Fiara," I reply. "I haven't seen you in a while."

"It's been…two hundred years," she agrees. "It's nice here, though. I can watch you from here."

"Why are you watching me?" I ask.

"Why not?" she counters. "What else have I got to do? Mother coddles me all the time, Father just stares at me – he still thinks it's unnatural to speak to dead people even when he's dead – so I watch you. You're life had been quite interesting."

"Not right now, though," I reply. "It's difficult to say if I'm going to live much longer."

She gets a certain twinkle in her eyes. "We'll see. But if I know you, you'll live for quite a while longer."

I shrug, unsure of how to reply.

"Your friend, Jonah, is quite worried about you." She's laughing slightly. "He's done all sorts of things to wake you up. I don't want to say goodbye, yet, though."

When she said goodbye, I'm reminded of everything Dani had done. "Is Dani here? Wherever I am in the real world?"

Fiara only shrugs. "I don't know. I can't look at her because I didn't know her in real life."

I realize she is severely limited in her options of who to look at. She was only ten, dying in the year 1812. "It's been nice to talk with you, Fiara."

"You too, Hope," she replies. "Go. Your wounds are healing nicely, the Raze made sure of that."

"The Raze?"

But she's already gone.

And then I am too.

"Hope? Hope!"

I woke to Jonah hitting my cheek repeatedly. My arm has a bandage over it, and it feels numb. I was lying on a bed of straw. "Hi, Jonah."

He sighed in relief. "Oh. My. God. Do you know how worried I was?"

I shook my head, slowly sitting up. "No."

He launched into a detailed account of everything he did to try to wake me up, but I wasn't really listening. We were in a cell, the bars strong, tight, and close together. Blue lights were flickering around them too, so I assumed a kind of magic held them in place.

"Thanks," I told him, just to get him to stop talking. It was obvious he was scared out of his wits, and so was I, but he was trying to talk in order to calm himself.

He surprisingly remained quiet for a minute, and then said slowly, "I saw Dani."

I gasped, turning around. A small bit of pain sliced through my arm but I ignored it. "You saw her? Was she okay?"

He looked like he was trying hard not to cry. "Oh, she's okay. But not for long."

I narrowed my eyes. "Why not?"

He couldn't bring himself to respond to me. "Jonah," I said softly, "why not?"

"Bläsa's making her his Vessel."

I was speechless. How do you reply to that? Dani had officially joined the dark side. She had wanted more than anything to become Lěshä's Vessel, and when she wasn't, she chose to be Bläsa's instead. "How…?" I said, trailing off. What I had wanted to say was, how could she do something so stupid?

But I couldn't ask the question when I already knew the answer.

"It's happening tomorrow," Jonah continued. He was sobbing now. It was a better reaction that I could get out. "They have a huge ceremony for it and everything…"

"Why would Bläsa want that though?" Shouldn't I be worried about Dani? At the very least, I should be feeling sympathetic. But I understood. Sometimes you don't want to understand, though.

"She's a powerful Eternal. She's the Time Eternal, too. If her powers get more focused she could take him through time," Jonah replied. It made sense. Bläsa was just using her. She thought he wanted her, respected her, didn't she?

"He only wants her power," I realized. "If she was a different kind of Eternal, he wouldn't want her."

Jonah nodded thoughtfully. He was still crying but desperately trying to get it under control. "I…I guess so. But why? We needed her there."

I shook my head. "She didn't believe that. Now we just have to focus on getting out of here."

"Getting out of here?" he exclaimed incredulously. "Dani's effectively killing herself and you want to escape? Shouldn't we be trying to help her?"

For a Mind Eternal, he was pretty dumb sometimes. I didn't want to yell at him, so I only said, "Jonah. Listen. We're trapped in a cell in some Raze lair. We have to get out. The only way to help Dani is to get out. But as much as I want to help her, she has the right to choose her own course. We can't tell her what side to pick. It's up to her."

"But she's not thinking clearly!" he protested.

"I know," I agreed. "I know, but it's out of our hands. Who knows where Clara and Fane are? X said we might get captured and we did. So…let's just get out of here."

"There's no way," he replied. "The blue stuff is electrified. The bars are too thick, and it's all magic-proof. Believe me, I tried."

"Maybe we can try tomorrow," I suggested, still staring at the bars. I felt like they weren't just trapping me in a cell. They were also tight around my heart. "Are they going to show us the ceremony?"

"Probably," Jonah said. "If nothing else, just to gloat that they got Dani and we don't."

I sighed. "Then we hold out 'till tomorrow. We'll figure something out. I'll use that attack I did in the back room of the Practice Room – where I just emit magic in every direction. Make sure you shield yourself from it, I can't control where I send it."

He nodded. "Then we find Clara and Fane, right?"

"Right." I nodded grimly. "Wherever they are. They might be here."

And so we waited.

About an hour went by. It felt strange to talk to each other, but we did anyway to relieve fear and tension. It didn't seem like anyone else was here, but we couldn't see any other cells. Finally, a Raze walked by our door and opened it somehow. We couldn't see how he did it, much to my chagrin.

"I'm here for Hope," he rasped, and I bravely stood up. I didn't want Jonah to think I was afraid. He gave me a weak smile, and I nodded to him.

"I can't die, right?" I told him, and he nodded this time. Leaving with the Raze, we both knew that it was all too easy for me to die here.

We walked down a long hallway that was perfectly empty except for our cell. I could feel her (she had red eyes and brown skin, proving it was a female) hot breath racing down my neck, and for a minute I thought I was back in Bloomtown.

We reached a door at the end of the hallway and she opened it, revealing a circular room with about eight more doors. She sniffed the air, and then chose a door. I realized that all the Raze got around by scent. This place seemed so complicated, they just smelled their way to the correct passage.

That was gross on a number of levels.

The room we entered was relatively small, with only a chair and a table. I was pushed into the chair, giving me a full view of the table's contents. There were knives, razors, pliers, and all sorts of sharp tools. This was a torture chamber.

Another man was standing by the table. He had black hair, black, narrow eyes, and his face was deathly pale. His robes hung the same way Lěshä's did, and he stood with an arrogance I'd never seen before. The Raze who had escorted me bowed respectfully and left the room. I was glad that her breath was gone and I could relax…until I figured out the man's identity.

The man was Bläsa.

And I had an audience with him.

"Hope Williams," he said softly. I expected him to yell at me, or to at least have a booming voice, but it was soft and elegant. "Eternal of Death, am I right?"

I couldn't think of how to respond so I didn't respond at all.

"Not a talker? That's okay. Normally I'm not either, but one of us has to make a sacrifice, don't we?" He shot me a crooked smile which just looked wrong on his face. "And I think you've made enough today."

I still didn't reply.

"Your friend, Danielle. She's an excellent Vessel, I must say. Much more willing than you were, wasn't she?" There was that smile again. I looked for any emotion in his eyes but I didn't find any. "Then again, we're willing to do a lot for power, that I can understand."

He began to pace along the edge of the table, occasionally sneaking a sly glance at me. "But I suppose I am wrong. You do not wish for power. In fact, you want to…give it up?"

He must have heard from Dani how I didn't want to be Lêshä's Vessel. "Yes," I said quietly. Before I could finish, he cackled.

"Finds her voice, does she? Please finish, my dear. I'm intrigued what took so long to say."

I wanted to make it sound good, just to spite him, but something about his presence just invoked fear into me. "If it helps my friends not to have the power, I'd give it up."

"But it's too late." He stopped pacing, walked around the table, and kneeled right in front of him. His breath, instead of being hot, was icy cold. "She's mine now. She's not your friend. She never was."

"She was!" I argued. Finally, I didn't sound like a scared little girl. "She was."

"A friend does not desert another friend when they get jealous," Bläsa said through clenched teeth. He had experience with this.

I looked him right in the eye. "Who abandoned you?"

He didn't reply. We eyed each other for a long time. Just like I had understood why Dani had done what she did, I felt as if I understood Bläsa. At a young age he must have been left behind by somebody he thought he could trust. I understood because I had too. In those 212 years I had lived, slowly I became a closed off shell of the former person I was. Clara and everyone else had brought me back, away from the shell. But Bläsa didn't have anybody to do that.

"You're wrong," he hissed. "I was born this way."

I gave a start. "You knew what I was thinking." It wasn't a question, but a statement because it had to be true.

He nodded slightly. He was still inches from my face. "No. I could just tell what you were thinking from your eyes. I was born to be Lêshä's opposite, Hope. But we were supposed to be together. I loved her."

"And she didn't love you back," I said softly. "She cast you away, didn't she?"

"I couldn't take it. I made the Raze, just as she made you five. But my race is more powerful," he grinned. "And now I have Dani, just to prove my point."

"This is a contest for you?" I exclaimed. "You just want to kill everything Lêshä made and stands for so she'll like you?"

He snorted. "She'll never love me the way I will always love her. I was made to love her, don't you understand? She wasn't. She has the luxury of choice."

"There's always a choice, Bläsa." My mind flashed back to when X had me in his back room, when he had told me I had no choice. There is always a choice, and I had to hope I'd made the right ones so far.

He growled slightly. "There wasn't for me, not when lust for her runs in my veins. So, yes, I suppose it is a contest for me to prove that I'm the right one for her. I will kill everything she 'stands for' – you included."

I couldn't help but suck in a breath.

"But I can't kill you yet…," he reasoned, "So I'll have to find out the location of the camp from you."

I thought back to what Clara had said. "We're still in Canada. In the Rocky Mountains. I can't tell you more. What if you get captured and then you're tortured? You might compromise us." That had been just about two months ago. It felt like an eternity, or at least a year. Time had lost its meaning for me after living so long.

"I don't know where the camp is," I told him honestly.

"Mhm, of course not," he whispered, leaning forwards and speaking right into my ear. I got shivers as his voice touched my ear. "But you wouldn't tell me even if you did know."

I managed to shake my head. "I have one last offer for you, Hope," he said softly. "Join me, Hope. You can live forever. You can be powerful. Forget being Lêshä's Vessel. Be with Dani again. Forget pain, forget suffering."

He leaned even closer. I tried to shrink away, but I discovered that I was cuffed to the chair by restraints that had slid out of nowhere. "You could live forever, Hope."

My name sounded unnatural coming from his lips. This was simply another choice, and although he made his argument well, I hissed, "I already live forever."

Then I spit at him, hitting his ghostly face.

He roared in anger, wiping his face with his sleeve, and then he went back to the table. "You can tell me everything you know about the camp," he snarled, "or you can submit to my torturing."

I didn't say another word. I had just angered a god. I had a god as an enemy. The consequences of my actions hadn't occurred to me until now.

He picked up a knife on the table and whispered, "You have a touch of arsenic in your blood still. This means whatever wounds I give you will heal quickly…but not that quickly."

He lifted the knife, and with a grace and speed I'd never seen, plunged it into my gut.

I roared in pain and anger, too. The knife hurt more than it should've, and I know, because I'd been stabbed before. Even if my wounds heal fast it doesn't mean I'm immune to pain. Screaming, I tried to wait for the injury to heal. It was, but very, very slowly. Blood trickled down my waist, coating my white shirt.

"Did you like that?" Bläsa hissed. "Did you enjoy the pain?"

I shook my head, gurgling slightly.

"Do you want to tell me where your camp is?"

I shook my head again.

He slashed my arm but I barely felt that pain. My head drooped and I wished I would pass out, I wished…

He slapped me and I didn't.

The bleeding in my knife wound stopped finally, but he only stabbed me again. My breathing went shallow as my body tried to get past the arsenic but it couldn't.

"Stop…," I whispered, begging him. It felt like hours had gone by.

"Will you tell me what I wish to know?"

I couldn't. I couldn't bring myself to.

We continued playing his game. Finally he stopped, leaning on the table for support. He waited there, letting my wounds heal, and then he said, "You've fought past the arsenic. You're no use to me."

My vision was clearing and the wounds were going away, slowly but surely. Finally. The effort left me exhausted and I felt like I could drop at any moment. My eyes felt heavy and I tasted a coppery tang in my mouth.

The door opened and two Raze came in the room. My cuffs slid away and I was hauled up by their nasty fingers. I didn't want them to touch me but I felt weak and I didn't trust my own legs to carry me back to my cell.

"Maybe your friend will be more helpful," Bläsa grumbled. We left before I could say a word. I wasn't even sure if I could say a word.

The two Raze, a male and female, dragged me out of the torture area and back into that circular room. My eyelids felt heavy and I struggled to stay awake, but I wasn't about to collapse in the middle of this room. I had to warn Jonah what was coming…

We made it back to the cell, and not a moment too soon. As they opened the door and shoved me inside, I collapsed onto the hay. "Bläsa will be ready for you soon," the Raze hoarsely told Jonah, and they closed the door again, the blue force shield flickering back on.

"You have to be careful," I told Jonah. "He wants to know…" My voice faded out for a minute, but then I managed, "…where the camp is."

Jonah gasped. "We don't know where it is, though! The only one that knows is –,"

"Joel, and he's dead now," I finished for him. We both knew that X could reveal the location, but a Raze might have overheard him. Even so, I knew where the location of the camp was…sort of. Clara had let it slip to me that it was in the Rocky Mountains in Canada.

Jonah, luckily didn't know that. And neither did Dani.

I let gravity control all of my limbs and I flopped down onto the straw. I was so tired I could barely open my eyes. "Do you have any arsenic in you?" I asked Jonah blearily.

He shook his head. "I don't think so. The cyanide they gave me wore off a long time ago."

At least something good had happened today. "He won't be able to torture you, then. Your injuries will heal...he wants us alive."

I could tell by the silence I'd either scared or confused Jonah. Seeing as he was always scared here, I'd probably done the latter. Finally, he asked, "Why?"

I mumbled my response, and I wasn't paying attention anymore because I was too tired, so it came out in French. "Parce que nous allons renseignements importants il a besoin." It took me a while to realize that I hadn't spoken English, and I confused Jonah even more.

"I pride myself in knowing things, and I do know many languages," he replied, "but French isn't one of them."

I apologized and translated, "Because we have important information that he needs."

He nodded. "He thinks we know where the camp is, but what else could we tell him?"

I shrugged, as best as I could without opening my eyes and while lying down. "The defenses. Our powers. He wants us to join him like Dani did."

I was too tired to feel my heart break a little as I said her name.

Jonah asked me something else but I couldn't hear him. I began falling asleep, getting closer and closer, but then Jonah yelled, "Hope!"

I snapped my eyes open, expecting an attack. "What? What is it?"

"You were falling asleep, and that appeared."

I looked at him to see he was pointing nervously in the corner. Following his arm, I saw somehow I had conjured a spirit. A man was standing in the corner of the cell, but he was all smoky and hazy and had a turquoise hue to him, just like other ghosts did. I could see all the detail of his clothes (which was a lot. He had a toga on, a sash, and a belt like thing, and he was wearing one of those leaf circles the Greeks put on their heads) but I could also make out the bars behind him.

"I am not a 'that'," the spirit roared. "I am me. Achilles."

We both gasped. Looking him up and down, and finally at his heel, I could see that the spot he was dipped in the Styx River in the Greek Underworld wasn't even there. So, of course, in my stupor-like state I naturally asked, "Why don't you have a heel?"

Jonah looked at me like I'd gone insane. Achilles looked slightly disturbed that I'd come out and said it with no prelude to cushion the blow.

Achilles stood up a little straighter and said, "In the Underworld, we appear how we truly lived life. I lived showing myself of as strong when I had a huge weakness. Now, in death, my heel did not follow me there."

Jonah nodded respectfully. I didn't think to follow his lead.

"Why are you here, sir?" Jonah asked.

Achilles nodded approvingly. "I like you, young soldier. You know the chain of command and respect." He looked at me as he said those words, but I didn't really process that he disliked me.

"To answer the question," he continued, "Hope was in a state of conjuring, even only for a second, and you looked like you could use some guidance."

I blinked. "I was?"

Achilles sighed. "She's a slow one, is she not?"

"No, sir, she's not, she was just tortured for information." Jonah said those words lightly, as if they struggled to come off his tongue.

Achilles nodded. "Did you give the enemy the information?"

I shook my head. "No."

He nodded again, this time a bit more favourably. "That is good. That is a sign of a good soldier, even if you are a girl."

I looked at him with a smirk on my face. "Really? Your pulling the sexist card?"

He shrugged. "It is true. You are a woman trying to be a fighter, are you not? That is a difficult thing to do for your gender."

I glared at him. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's hate against another race, whether that be prejudice, racism or sexism. "You know what? You can just take all that sexist crap and shove it up your ass, okay? When you've found your balls you can come back and talk to me."

I only confused him with my 'modern slang.' "My balls? Do you mean to say I'm a jester of some kind? And I have no ass. My faithful donkey died years ago."

Jonah tried to stifle a laugh. I gave him another look. "Yes, when you've found your inner jester you can talk to me."

He shrugged. "If you won't listen, I'll talk to your friend."

"What do you want to tell us, sir?" Jonah asked, trying to bring the situation back to the normal side of things.

"I know Bläsa. He was Hades to the Greeks, Pluto to the Romans, Anubis to the Egyptians and the Devil to the Christians. He is evil in it's true form, but none of the religions got it right," he said. "He wasn't born to be evil."

"He told me that," I cut in. "He was born to be Lêshä's partner, but when he told her of his love for her, Lêshä rejected him and he went evil."

Achilles nodded sharply. "That is it. You must remember not all of Bläsa is bad. In the Greek's case, there were times where Hades could be rewarding."

"But what do we do about Dani?" I asked. "How can we show her that Bläsa won't help her?"

Achilles lifted one shoulder. "It's her choice."

It scared me, because that's exactly how I was trying to deal with it. It's her choice. I had told Bläsa that there was always a choice. I had never been in a situation where I didn't have at least two paths I could take. I wanted to take the right ones, but then again, I ended up here, so…I must've gone wrong somewhere.

I began falling asleep, and as I did so Achilles' outline began to fade. "Oh, so you're just going to let me go?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not…" I had to try to stifle a huge yawn. My body was shutting down, forcing me to sleep so it could get all the way past the arsenic and heal. "Umm, yeah."

"Goodbye, sir," Jonah said.

Achilles nodded, and then he was gone.

"Wow!" Jonah exclaimed. "He was so cool." I'd never seen him star struck before.

"Read…read on…read on him before?" I managed, getting ready to sleep.

"Yeah. You should rest. They come for me, they come for me. I won't tell them anything," he promised. "Don't worry about me."

And so I stopped resisting and gave into sleep.

 


	8. Chapter Seven

As I said, when I woke up – full of energy. It's amazing what a good night's sleep can do for you. Next time your mother tells you to have a good night's sleep and you'll feel better in the morning, believe her – Jonah was gone, undoubtedly taken by the Raze.

I also realized, with a chill, it was probably the next day. Dani's ceremony was today. Why? Why would she? Maybe she was faking it and was going to spy for us. A small part of me wanted to believe it, but whispered instead, Bläsa would've known.

This was one time I wished I wasn't right.

I spent about an hour wishing Jonah was there. What was Bläsa doing to him right now? What if Jonah was dead? Maybe Bläsa didn't need him alive and killed him with the four poisons. The many possible what ifs kept creeping through my head.

Finally, Jonah stumbled down the corridor, guarded by a Raze. He was shoved back into our cell and the Raze hissed roughly, "I'll come get you in half an hour."

Jonah sat up slowly. "Are you okay?" I asked, crawling over to him.

He nodded once. "Fine. He did the same thing to me. I told him what I knew – the camp location was confidential. He didn't believe me."

I nodded as well. "He thinks we know where it is. Even if he did know the location, what would he do with it?"

Jonah managed to look at me and cock an eyebrow. "Attack it."

I felt my cheeks get hot. "Oh. Right."

He sighed. "Dani's ceremony is in thirty minutes."

"The Raze said so," I agreed. "How are we going to get out?"

He looked at me with a small twinkle in his eyes. "Actually, I have a plan for that."

I gasped. "You do?!"

He shushed me. "Not so loud." Dropping to a whisper, he continued, "Let's watch the ceremony. Bläsa ended up telling me all about it, whether he knows that or not. Dani has to soak in all her new powers for about five minutes, just as you did for Lêshä. Then, while everyone's distracted, you do you magic thing."

We both knew he meant the spell where I filled the room with magic. I nodded, and he continued, "I'll put up a shield. Afterwards, once you either kill all the Raze or distract them, we run back here. I know a doorway out, a different door in that circular room. It's the one on the left end. We're going to have to fight our way out."

I sighed. That plan sounded impossible, and we both knew it. Raze were everywhere in this compound, and just getting out would prove difficult. "I'm up for it," I said, agreeing nevertheless.

"We have to try," he said. His words were getting tighter and tighter as his eyes dropped lower and lower. His body was reacting the same way mine had. "Is there any way you can make me stay awake?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I can try."

Summoning my magic – which was pretty easy now – I thought heal Jonah, at least temporarily. I even thought it in French, and the little bit of German I'd picked up during the Wars. Yes, I mean the World Wars.

A bit of energy came from my fingertips and a black shimmer raced over to Jonah. It hit him in the chest, and although it looked like it would hurt, he sighed in relief when it entered his body. "Thanks," he said. "That helped." His eyes were open all the way, and he wasn't speaking so tightly.

"That's good," I said, taking a deep breath, trying to restore the bit of energy I'd lost. Magic was like running – you knew how to do it by heart, but you couldn't do it all day.

We rested and prepared for what we were going to do for the rest of the time. It was life or death, and we couldn't afford to get captured again. It was a silent agreement – if all hope was lost, and I don't mean myself, then we would purposefully die. The Raze had all two poisons, and I also had some cyanide that Clara gave me. The only problem was the ricin. "Jonah," I said. "We don't have a way to get ricin."

He shook his head. "I have ricin."

I gave a double-take. "Why are you carrying ricin with you? Don't you know how dangerous that is?" Ricin stopped our powers for days on end.

He nodded. "I could ask you the same question about your cyanide."

"Clara gave it to me."

"Yeah, well, that makes sense. She used it on me, too, when she got me. Tried to give me some but I refused. Seemed too dangerous. She insisted I carry a poison and I chose ricin," he replied. "Seemed logical. I didn't think I'd be in a situation like this anytime soon."

"Well, you made the right choice," I said, unsure of whether to laugh or to be grateful for our luck. "You know, you'd think he'd give us ricin so we wouldn't escape. We probably could've already."

"Maybe he forgot," Jonah said, shrugging. We both knew that wasn't true, but what else could've happened? A god just doesn't forget things like that.

Suddenly, our cell door opened and the Raze that shoved Jonah back in here was standing in front of us. "Come with me," he growled. "Don't try anything."

I looked at him. "Do you think we would?"

He just growled and motioned for us to hurry up. As we were walking down the hallway, I asked, "Why are there more males than females?"

He looked at me strangely this time, but he still didn't answer.

"The females breed," Jonah whispered in my ear. "Most of them are breeding their whole lives."

I shuddered. That would be a horrible way to live your life.

We arrived at the other end of the hallway we'd grown so accustomed to, and entered a large, square room. A large, golden pedestal dominated one side, and the rest of the room was filled with Raze.

There were so many of them my stomach turned and twisted. The stench was overpowering. They all clattered and chattered, clicking their tongues in their own language. Proving Jonah's earlier point, only about ten percent were females. But I could look past all that. I could ignore every single Raze that entered this room because on the pedestal was Dani.

I couldn't help but gasp. She was downed in silver robes and her hair was drawn back in one braid. She was looking fit, fitter than I remembered her to be, and she stood with such an arrogant power that I could barely recognize her. A long, wooden bow was positioned across her back, and a quiver of arrows next to it. "Dani," I whispered, unable to contain the heartbreak.

It wasn't just that I'd lost somebody. I'd lost a friend to an enemy.

"Dani!" I yelled, but she didn't appear to hear me. A sly smile was spread across her face, and I wished I hadn't, but the thought crossed my mind – She looks so much more at home with the Raze.

Finally, she spotted me and Jonah. She didn't appear surprised. She wasn't even slightly happy to see we were okay. Instead, her features twisted into a frown and she looked away immediately. My heart sank.

But something inside me hardened. I think that was the time I lost every feeling I'd ever had for Dani, whether it be mere kindness or friendship. I forgot all that. She didn't think of me as a friend, so I shouldn't either.

She was only the enemy. Nothing more. Nothing less. As hard as that was, I did it.

Jonah was having a bit more difficulty. "We have to watch this," I told him. "The old Dani would want that."

He nodded sharply.

Suddenly, Bläsa was there, stepping majestically out onto the pedestal and resting beside Dani. She smiled at him shrewdly and he returned the gesture. "My friends!" he yelled, his voice booming out over all the Raze. Everyone felt compelled to stop talking, including me.

"Today we welcome a new member to our little 'family,'" he said, and everyone laughed. The way the Raze laughed was strange – it was almost like a cough.

"Danielle –,"

He paused to let Dani whisper something in his ear. "Oh, my apologies. Dani here has graciously volunteered to join us. She will also be my Vessel."

The crowd cheered. Jonah and I tried hard not to lunge out fighting as the Raze around us jumped and shouted "Hooray!" in their language. Or maybe they were shouting "Boo!" It's hard to tell.

Bläsa gave a wicked smile and I hated him for it. "Commence the ceremony, my friends!"

Bläsa stepped behind Dani, his black robes making him appear as her silhouette. Their height difference would've been comical in a different situation. He lifted his fingertips, and even though I gave an involuntary yelp, black lightning flew out of them.

The instant the tendrils hit Dani, her back arched and the leisurely grin was gone, replaced by a large 'O' or surprise. She began to twitch, and slowly, just like I was, she levitated into the air until she was surrounded by Bläsa's dark magic.

This time, I got a viewpoint that my friends had seen from me. Dani convulsed, raising high into the air. Bläsa's grin spread larger and larger as he filled her with his power. Suddenly, on Dani's wrist, a V identical to mine was tattooed.

But that wasn't all. My experience had stopped there. Lêshä had only done her Vessel halfway – Bläsa was going all-out. Her pupils began to grow, taking up her whole eye. Her hair, which had been purple and blonde today, began to change colours rapidly. New tattoos began to creep up all over her body.

And then it was over. She dropped to the floor, and lay there motionless for a few seconds. Bläsa staggered backwards slightly when he let the lightning he made go, but recovered swiftly enough.

And she sat up.

Jonah and I gasped. We couldn't help ourselves. Gone was the Dani we knew, with no hope of ever coming back. Her icy blue eyes were gone, taken up by the pupil. She had no iris anymore. Her hair was jet black, and it made her pale skin look ghostly…just like Bläsa's. Her robes had fallen away, so she was only wearing a tight black tank top, jeans, and somehow she had a new pair of combat boots.

But her tattoos…those were insane. She still had the deeply etched V, but on her other wrist was a B, presumably for Bläsa, marking her as his. All over her arms, black swirls and lines dominated. On her forehead she had more elaborate designs, and from what I could see of her legs she had them there, too.

Her bow had grown larger – it was thick, sturdy, and covered in swirls, just like her body. Her arrows were jet black as well, with only a red end to them. I could bear all of it. I could live with seeing that every day.

But the fact she was smiling killed me inside.

Bläsa laughed, and suddenly, as a single unit, every Raze in the room bowed. Someone dragged me and Jonah down with them, but as we were falling to one knee, Jonah whispered, "Now."

I took everything inside me and bundled it all together. Hate mixed with anger and fear met rage. Once every emotion was together, and once I could feel the energy racing through me, I gave a yell and let it all go.

Jonah immediately yelled something in Mandarin and he was surrounded by a shimmering force shield. That was good, because I was blind with fury. Black tendrils, almost identical to Bläsa's raced out of my hands, filling the room.

The Raze had no chance. Some of them managed to fight their way through the magic, but about half got incinerated on the spot. Dani and Bläsa were safe, shielded somehow, but I didn't care. I didn't care who lived and who died right then.

"Hope!" Jonah yelled, somehow getting through to me over all the chaos. "We have to go! Now!"

I don't know how I managed to listen to him. I also don't know why I stopped. I wanted to destroy Bläsa, to murder him violently. But Jonah was my anchor. He kept me grounded through the pain, I guess. There's no other way it could've happened. But I stopped, just because he told me to.

I shut off the magic and immediately felt the draining effects. I staggered a bit, but regained my composure and together we bolted out of the room and back into the hallway. "Weapons!" Jonah panted.

I nodded. The first Raze we ran into I took down by magic. Now I wasn't sure I could cast another spell, but I had to try. We took the beast's sword, but I let Jonah carry it, because we both knew he was rubbish at magic but a great fighter.

We continued down the hallway, past our cell. If you looked closely you could still see the indents of where our bodies had lay on the straw. Racing past the prison, we could see the door that led to the circular room.

Things were actually looking up.

And then she was there. I don't know how she did it, but suddenly she was standing in front of us, her bow drawn. Her eyes blinked, but the pupils didn't dilate or grow smaller. Her jet black hair was blowing across her face, as if an invisible wind surrounded her.

She traveled through time. "Ride the winds of time and all that." Clara had told me Dani was able to do that. How could I have been so stupid and forgotten?

"Dani, don't do this," I said, but she wasn't going to listen to me. Her head cocked sideways slightly, but she wasn't paying us any attention.

Jonah hesitantly lifted his sword and was about to charge Dani when she fired.

Her arrow was going to hit Jonah. I couldn't let that happen. Using my magic, I used whatever energy I had left and I directed the arrow to me. I know, I should've made it hit Dani. I didn't have the power for that. I'd used everything up killing the Raze. Only a slight direction change was allowed by my magic, and after I did that, I was totally out.

But it didn't end there. I saw the arrow. I saw it fly through the air, about to strike me in the heart. I knew I was going to die. Dani probably had poisons in that quiver of hers, and Jonah and I both knew it.

He was just a little quicker. Because before I knew it I was lying sideways on the ground and he had an arrow in his chest.

"Jonah!" I yelled. Dani was gone. Why didn't she kill me? I didn't really care. Jonah had taken an arrow for me…Jonah had saved my life.

He was trying to sit up, and for a moment, hope flashed within my chest. Maybe it was a regular arrow. Maybe Dani didn't realize that. "Are you okay?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "It's…poisoned."

My heart sank. "The death is slow. Painful. Takes a long time." That was another piece of information Clara had given me. Another one I wished I didn't know.

We both knew what was happening but I refused to accept it. I didn't even think the word. Instead, using some hidden strength and a lot of adrenaline, I hoisted up Jonah and let him lean on me. We still stubbornly continued down the hallway.

Raze were hissing at us but only half my mind was there. One caught up to me and lunged, claws bared, ready to strike. I tried to use magic, but I couldn't. I had forgotten I had no more to use.

I felt a searing pain in my back and I knew I'd just been scratched. Mercury. Infects with toxin.

I roared, half in pain and half in anger, and maybe a bit in fear.

Do you need any help?

Suddenly, Lěshä's voice was in my head. Yes. I need it right now and don't tell me no.

I felt filled with energy. The pain in my back went away. Everything, actually, seemed to go away. I was in my own world, and no one else was allowed…well, except for Jonah. He could come.

Raze kept trying to break into my head but I pushed them away. I killed them…just like Dani wanted to kill Jonah. I could hear him breathing with me. He wasn't going to die. He couldn't die, could he? What would happen if I lost my anchor?

I shuddered at the thought.

We made it to the circular room…and no Raze followed us. Why aren't they coming? I thought. I was still energy-high and I didn't want to let any of it go. It clouded my thoughts, muddling my emotions. All that mattered was me and Jonah. Nobody else. Never anything else.

"What door was it?" I asked Jonah groggily.

His voice was laboured and I could tell that he was in pain but in my current state it didn't matter. "The one…on the very…left." I took the door on the very left. Surprisingly, it opened without force. Or maybe I did use force. Who cared?

Without looking, I stepped through the door and then I was falling…

As I hit the ground, all the energy left me. Lêshä…I thought, moaning out loud. My back was on fire, I was about to pass out and I had just hit my head. It was a wonder I hadn't died. To top it all off, it was raining cats and dogs.

I'm sorry, you've entered a sheltered place. Extra protections are up right now, I can't get through, she told me. You're close to your camp.

Are you kidding me? I exclaimed. Bläsa was that close?

Not at all, she replied, you stepped through a transporter. Simply think of a place you've been and you'll go there. You're just outside of where you want to be, outside the borders.

I groaned again as the pain settled in. "Jonah?" I called weakly. I felt hot, and clammy. What did mercury do again? I couldn't remember…

He gave a weak, "Here." I inhaled sharply and sat up, yelling in pain. My back was searing in pain and heat and I was sweating uncontrollably. He was my first priority, though.

"Can you walk?" I asked.

He shook his head, ever so slightly. I moaned, getting to my feet. I was wavering and staggering, but Jonah needed me. I had to stay strong.

Walking over to him, I tried to use magic but I was right out of that. So, instead, I screamed and then lifted him up, putting him in a fireman's carry.

"You're…strong," he whispered hoarsely.

I couldn't respond. I was sagging under his weight, and if either of us didn't get help soon we could die. For good.

So I put my left foot forwards. And then my right. And I kept walking, supporting us both on next to no strength.

Rain was pelting me, getting my hair wet and making it stick to my face. Sweating in heavy rain in an interesting experience.

Then, all of a sudden, I got freezing cold. I felt like every breeze was a blizzard. I could barely think. My teeth chattered and my legs threatened to give out on me.

No, I thought. I will not give up now.

And then I saw it. A shimmering border, hiding what I knew was our camp. I wanted to run. I wanted to scream. I couldn't do any of those things. I didn't see Clara or Fane, but who knew what had happened to either of them? They could be dead for all I knew.

I was counting on the fact they weren't.

Jonah's breathing was getting shallower. As my toe crossed the border, everything came into view. The buildings, the meadow, everything. I was even saved from the rain. Apparently the new borders were weather-proof.

"FANE!"

That was…I couldn't tell who it was, but it wasn't me or Jonah and I felt like I knew who that was…did I? I couldn't exactly think. Spots were growing in my vision and I knew it was only a matter of time.

Someone was running towards me. I couldn't do it anymore. I tried to drop Jonah softly but it was a hard thump when he landed. I collapsed to the ground myself, the blackness taking over.

I began to twitch without warning. Was I having a seizure? I couldn't tell, but I convulsed over and over. Someone placed their hands on my chest but I didn't know who.

Then the blackness took me and knew I wasn't coming back for a long, long time…

 


	9. Chapter Eight

I can't tell left from right or up from down. It's dark. This isn't the next dimension. This isn't a regular dream, but I'm still dreaming.

"Hope."

And then he's there but I can't see him. Where is he? His voice echoes through my mind but I see no body. "Bläsa," I find myself responding.

"Your name is very unfitting. Don't you realize there isn't any hope left?"

The dark is gone. Instead I see various images, all flashing past at incredible speed, but I make them all out. There's an army of Raze, marching in sync, row upon row. Dani stands at the front with Bläsa as her silhouette, commanding pure evil.

Another is Dani pulling back her arrow and shooting it right at my vision. I see Jonah being impaled by the arrow, dropping to the ground like a rock. Me being surrounded by Raze in Bloomtown, the stench overpowering still.

I see things that haven't happened yet. A sword is driven through Clara's chest and as she drops her eyes glaze over, vacant. Fane is brought down by a Raze, and I lose him as they swarm. Jonah is punctured with multiple arrows this time, his body shaking every time one finds their mark.

And then Dani's standing in front of my vision, her tattoos mesmerizing me. Her black eyes seem to laugh as she brings her arrow back and stabs me in the gut…

"Don't you see?" The dark surrounds me again and I gasp. Fear strikes through me but I don't know why. I have the strangest feeling that Bläsa and I aren't alone. "There's no hope for you. You can't defeat me. Give in now and I might be merciful."

"I…I can't," I stammer. I don't know why I'm so afraid but it feels like the walls are suffocating me and I can't escape.

"Jonah's dying! Save him by giving up. I'm coming, Hope, I'm coming. I know where you're camp is. I'm coming."

"I can't give in!" I yell, pressing my hands over my ear but I can hear him laugh. It hurts my mind and I scream, dropping to my knees. Dani's laugh joins his and I can't think, I can't think…

I begin to shake. I can't control the fear anymore. Something growls behind me and I scream again, falling to the floor. I don't feel any floor beneath me, though. It feels like I'm lying on nothing.

The thing creeps closer and I try to crawl away but I can't. I'm paralyzed to the spot and I want to get away, I need to get away, but I'm trapped.

Just before it swallows me whole the floor falls away and I scream…

As soon as my eyes opened I bolted upright with terror. The horror of the dream still plagued me and I couldn't seem to blink. I was afraid that I if I closed my eyes, Bläsa was going to get me. Maybe it was the shock of everything that had happened to me and the exhaustion finally setting in, but I began to cry.

I hadn't cried in a while. Not even a tear had escaped my eyes for…for months. But everything caught up with me in that moment and I just balled my eyes out.

Finally, I stopped and got control of myself. Wiping my eyes dry, I shakily stood up. My back didn't hurt anymore. I knew the only the Nature Eternal, Clara, could heal mercury…so she must've healed me.

I noticed my surroundings for the first time. I was back in the infirmary. Laughing slightly, I remembered everything that had happened since I woke up here the first time. After trying to sneak out, I'd slapped Clara. Maybe I'd hug her this time.

Then I saw him. His face was ghostly white, and his glasses were gone so I could see his bloodshot eyes. He was shaking slightly, and every so often he'd moan in pain.

I felt like a robot when I walked over to his bed. "Jonah?" I whispered.

He smiled, but it looked forced. "Hi, Hope." His voice was so tight it sounded like his throat was constricting.

I didn't know how to respond. He was dying. It was so blatantly obvious to me, just standing there, that I wasn't sure how I should react. Should I start crying again? Should I be angry? Should I be comforting for him?

Instead, I found myself with none of those. I found myself with nothing.

"I don't have…have long," he whispered, his eyes closing slightly. "I'm going to go soon."

"No," I said. "No, you can't. We need the Mind Eternal."

He laughed slightly, but then ended up with a racking cough. "You'll get another in due time. I've lived over a…a hundred years. I think I…I did pretty well."

I shook my head. "Be like Fane. He's lived for more than four hundred."

"Too lonely."

And just before he fell asleep, Jonah spoke the words of my life. For two hundred years, I'd tried in vain to describe my immortality. I'd tried to find the right words, but in two words he just solved my problem.

I couldn't do it anymore. I let him be.

Clara and Fane were in the meadow, talking to each other in hushed whispers. Feeling a hell of a lot more confident than I did last time, I marched towards them. Compared to before, I felt energy high and full of…dare I say, hope?

But the fact Jonah was dying weighed heavy on my heart. Still, trying to put on a brave face despite everything I'd been through, I approached my friends warily.

Clara saw me first. She turned her head backwards to look at the infirmary building, and then gasped. Her features noticeably brightened and she got up off the ground in a flash. Without bothering to dust herself off she ran over to me and leapt into my arms.

I staggered backwards slightly but I was laughing like a maniac, despite everything.

After she finally got back down onto her feet, Fane piped up, "Uh, hi."

"Hey, Fane," I said, still laughing. Clara dragged me down to the ground and I ended up sitting next to her.

Suddenly, Clara's face grew tight and features went into a frown. "You have to tell us. What happened to you?"

My smile instantly dropped as the memory of the Raze's stench, Bläsa's torturing session, Dani's transformation and Jonah's fatal wound filled my mind. I hadn't realized just how much had happened until that moment, sitting in a peaceful meadow.

It's funny how you don't realize just how bad the bad things were until you're sitting somewhere none of that can happen to you.

I opened my mouth to tell them what happened, as hard as it would be to relive it all, but then the nightmare flooded back to me.

I'd pushed it away, but the darkness…and the thing in the corner…and Bläsa's voice, echoing everywhere…

I couldn't help it. I began to cry again.

Clara and Fane looked shocked. They'd never seen me cry, never. Not even once had I cried here, and now today I'd done it twice.

Clara gave me another hug, and we stayed embraced until my tears dried. Finally, I sat up again, and told them everything.

Their faces changed from horrified when I described the Raze surrounding us, angry when I told them about Bläsa and what he did to us and what he wanted, depressed when I told them about Dani, and totally distressed when I came to Jonah's wound and our escape.

We sat in silence for a while. Finally, Clara said, "How dare she."

I knew she was talking about Dani, but I couldn't bring myself to say anything.

"How dare she," Clara echoed. "After everything we did for her. After all the times we had together. Doesn't she realize Joel died to bring her here? She's so…how do you do something like that so easily?"

I knew how.

"And why?" Clara ranted. "There wasn't any warning. If she was feeling a certain way she should have…I don't know…told us!"

I had a feeling someone should've stopped Clara's rant, but I couldn't object to the truth.

"What's done is done," Fane said, solving my problem.

I nodded. "It's her choice."

Because there's always a choice.

"It's just the three of us, now," Clara sighed, running her fingers through her glossy black hair. Nobody dared say Jonah's name.

"How long?" I got out.

Fane was silent for a while, but he said, "A day at the most."

One new tear escaped my eyes.

Finally I said, "We can't defeat Bläsa. Not like this."

They both said at the same time, "I know."

"We need his ring and we need the Rock, wherever that is. I didn't see him wearing any ring, though, when we were there," I told them. "And we need someone who can combat Dani."

They both stared at me like I was an idiot.

I sighed like they were the idiots. "Not me. Dani's a full on Vessel. She takes her powers directly from Bläsa himself. I'm only a part Vessel. It's why I don't have the tattoos."

"So maybe you should be a full Vessel," Fane suggested. "A few tattoos aren't a problem."

I thought about it for a while, and then said, "Dani was a lot different. And I don't mean personality-wise. She didn't speak. Her irises vanished. I don't know if you guys want me to be like that, much less if I want to be like that."

"But…I hate to say it, Hope, but what if you're our only chance?"

Nobody could reply to that.

"No," Fane finally decided. "No, you shouldn't do it. We don't want that for you."

I nodded, but I wasn't convinced myself. What if I was the only chance?

We sat in silence for a little while longer, before Clara said, "I'm going to visit Jonah."

We nodded and all stood up. He didn't have long left. I shuddered when I realized that he could've been dead right at that moment.

I didn't know what I'd do if I hadn't got a goodbye.

We trudged back to the infirmary in silence. It was a hard thing to willingly go in there – for one, I'd just never liked hospitals. I'd had an unfortunate occurrence with a knife and a very high building (rival gang fights. You do what you got to do) and been taken to a hospital, even though my wounds healed in an instant. It was just before World War II was officially declared, and the hospital was full of people. I've never gotten the memory of the sick and dying out of my brain.

And, of course, I was afraid to see Jonah again.

Clara slowly opened the door and luckily, we saw Jonah's eyes were still open and he was still breathing. Sure, his eyelids were being forced open and he struggled for every breath, but he was alive.

"Hey," he said blearily.

"Hey, Jonah," Clara said, sitting beside him. Fane stood by the foot of the bed and I sat closest to the door.

"Listen…I have minutes," he said, his voice sinking to a whisper. Clara gasped but Fane just nodded like he knew it was coming.

I had a feeling he had something important to tell us, so I asked, "What do you need to say?" I also had a feeling he didn't want to be coddled. He saved my life. He had been my emotional anchor. Without him, I would've killed myself via magic depletion. I owed it to him to do whatever he wanted in his last moments.

"I figured…figured it out," he said hoarsely. "Hope and the Vessel…Vessel thing."

"You mean how she's only part-Vessel?" Clara asked, taking hold of his hand.

He nodded, but even that small action was difficult for him. "If she becomes full…full Vessel, like Dani, you could win."

"Not without you," I argued. "You'll make two Eternals we've lost, and we're nowhere near the turn of the century."

"No, you need Bläsa's ring," he said. "Once you have that, and…and a full Vessel…you just might win."

"Without the ring, Bläsa might be weakened," Fane agreed. "But where's the ring?"

"On his hand," Jonah said, and I supposed that was pretty obvious. "He doesn't wear it all the time, but he gets more power from it. He's…he's coming, and he'll wear it."

Before we could ask him more, Jonah broke into a huge coughing fit.

When it ended, Clara asked, "What do you mean, he's coming?"

Jonah almost laughed. "Dani placed a tracker in the…the arrow. She missed on purpose. I knew…knew it was too easy to escape."

I raised my eyebrows. "Easy? We both almost died." But inside I was cursing myself for being so stupid.

"I will die," he said, still trying not to laugh because it would hurt him.

His eyes started to close.

"Jonah! No, don't go. I still don't know if I should become a full Vessel. I don't want to end up like Dani…"

Jonah gave a weak smile. "Then don't. Follow your heart, Hope. What did you tell me? There's always a choice."

And with those final words, his life slipped away. His eyes grew vacant and the soft rise of his chest stopped.

Clara sobbed. Fane stood, disbelief filling his face.

Me? I snapped.

My anchor had just let me go.

I ran out of the room as fast as my feet could take me.

I found myself in my Séance room. I don't know why I went there, I just did. I began pacing throughout the room, not being able to stop moving. I felt like I had to do something, anything.

Anything not to cry again. Too many tears had fallen today.

There's always a choice.

That's what I'd told Bläsa. Jonah had just repeated it. But did I really have a choice? It was clear Fane and Clara wanted me to become Lêshä's Vessel. But I didn't want to. There it was. I didn't want to be reliant on somebody else, god or not god. Besides, the world wasn't that great a place, so Lêshä had to be doing something wrong.

But yet, it was also clear that Jonah wanted me to do what's right. He didn't say what that was.

So that's all I thought about. Did I "follow my heart" and become one with Lêshä? Or did I trust my brain and stay dependent on just me?

Thing was, if I didn't, we wouldn't have a force capable of standing up to Dani and we would die at her hands. And if I let Lêshä bond with me, we'd have a god on our side. She could battle Bläsa.

Then it would be Clara and Fane against a few thousand Raze.

I shook my head, trying to clear it. The odds didn't work. We needed more support. Who were we going to use, X? I kicked a candle over in anger. Some wax dripped onto the black floor but I didn't care.

Why didn't anyone care what I thought?

And then it was clear.

No one did care what I thought because they were too busy with their own feelings. They didn't realize why I didn't want to be the Vessel and they never would. So be it. If I became an emotionless shell, without speech or proper sight, that was their deal.

I'd fight Dani. I'd just do it with a little help.

Lêshä, I thought. I need to ask you something.

Her voice echoed through my mind. Yes, young one?

I muttered that two hundred and twelve was not young, but then I told her, I need to become your full Vessel. I suppose like Dani.

I detected the terror in her voice. No, no, no. No, that will not do. You cannot be like Dani.

Why not?

She is an embodiment of Darkness itself. She does not feel anymore.

Then let me feel, I countered.

I suppose you would. It is Light's job to feel, not Darkness. But still…is it really what you want? You can't come back from it, you know. You become my Vessel, you will always be my Vessel.

I know. But did I really know?

I almost detected a nod from her. Very well. But this was your wish, not mine.

And before I knew it, everything went white and I was lifted off the ground.

It wasn't like the last time. Before, I'd had some idea where I was and what was happening. This time, it was like a rejuvenating sleep but I saw white instead of black.

I could feel the energy pouring into me, but I didn't mind or pay attention to it. That feeling of bliss seemed to last for an eternity.

Then it was gone, snatched away from me. I fell flat on the ground, but quickly stood up again. The connection to Lêshä was still there, but I didn't have energy constantly filling me. I felt stronger than I had before, though. I just felt better, more clear.

Cautiously, I tried to speak. Sure enough, words flowed from my lips. I was so happy I recited the alphabet, and then did it again backwards.

I could still see in the Séance room, so that meant my Death powers weren't gone, which was another plus. Walking carefully to the bathroom, I stood outside the door for a moment before looking at myself in the mirror.

You couldn't even tell it was the same person. My previously dirty blonde hair was pure golden. It almost looked like it radiated light (or, Light, I should say). My smoky gray eyes were gone – even my pupils were. Instead, they were a golden-hazel sort of colour, pure orbs of energy. I had tattoos, too – a 'V' on one wrist and a 'L' on the other. It was Lěshä's way of marking me, claiming me. I had swirls that matched Dani's exactly, but they were golden and didn't show as clearly on my pale skin.

Lêshä had been generous. She had given me new daggers and knives to replace the ones I'd lost after Bloomtown. They were sharper than regular ones and covered in swirls.

This was it. This was the new Hope Williams. After two hundred years of death wishes, I was bonded to a god.

Time to show Clara and Fane.

Walking out of my floor, I felt a lot more confident than I previously had. Maybe Lêshä was helping me out because she probably understood now just how much I didn't want this. But Bläsa was coming, and we needed his ring. I would be the one to get it, undoubtedly.

At least I could talk.

Clara and Fane were in the meadow again, sitting silently. Fane was slowly edging his hand closer to Clara's, and I had a feeling he thought Clara was more than just a friend; but from a girl's perspective, having a guy show his romantic side after you've suffered a loss is not a good practice. Nevertheless, I hoped it worked out for them.

I didn't know how to attract their attention, but I didn't have to. Clara saw me and jumped up, as if I'd frightened her. Fane edged his hand back away again, all romantic pretenses forgotten.

"Hope?" she asked, nervousness lacing her voice. Was I scaring her? "Hope, are you okay?"

I looked at her like I'm an idiot. "I turn into a powerful Vessel with a goal to crush a god and the first thing you ask is if I'm okay?" Sarcasm filled my tone and she smiled, probably for only the second time today.

"You can talk!" she yelped gleefully, giving me another hug. Fane looked relieved as well.

"Luckily," I said. "Turns out that's only Dani."

Fane raised his eyebrows. "I'm talking from a boy's view, okay? Just saying, you look sexy right now."

That was no way to try to start a relationship with Clara. "Thanks," I said playfully, but I decided to test out my powers and I told him, But do give the compliments like that to her. She could use them right now…in his mind.

From his surprised expression, it worked. To his credit, he composed himself quickly and Clara was too focused studying my new tattoos to notice.

"They're pretty," she remarked casually, as if we were discussing something simple like tea.

"So what happens now?" Fane asked. "What do we do?"

Clara and I looked at each other, and although we didn't talk (not even in our minds) a lot of information passed between us.

I turned back to Fane. "We bury Jonah. And then we wait for Blasa to come."

 


	10. Chapter Nine

True to my words, we had the funeral the next morning.

We didn't actually bury him in the ground, no, instead we gave him a magical funeral. Even X showed up.

We buried Dani, too. It just seemed right.

We set up grave markers for them, and we tried to dress somberly, but my hair and eyes didn't help the mood. We laid Jonah's body down in one corner of the meadow, near Joel's house. A small stone marker had been set up for Joel there, one I had never noticed. Fane made the markers for Jonah and Dani himself.

Clara made sure that flowers laced the outline of Jonah's body, and where Dani would be laying if we had her body. I chanted an old Death chant, one that was custom for Eternals. It was sort of a good prayer, wishing them well as they traveled to the next dimension.

We gave our speeches next. I didn't know what to say. I choked up when I stood by their graves, so all I got out was, "You were right."

There is always a choice.

Clara was next but she began to cry as well. She managed to say, "I'm so, so sorry. You don't…you're better than that."

We let X have a go. "Good students," he grunted. "Bit of a shame."

We figured it was the best we were ever going to get out of him.

Fane took a deep breath and made his way up to the front of their graves, where he stood, staring at them for a while. It was hard to tear my eyes away from Jonah's still body and look at Fane, but I did.

"To the end," Fane began. "That was what Jonah told me. 'To the end.' The first words we ever spoke."

After a shuddering breath, he continued, "I didn't really think about them. Then again, I didn't think about the end. Who did? At this place, you never quite realize there will be an end.

"Jonah was one of the bravest people I'd ever met. Every time we had a challenge, he was right there in the front line, trying to help people. That's what he loved to do. He helped people."

He died helping people.

"I will never forget him."

For a moment, all was still.

"But this isn't the end. Jonah and I wanted to die next to each other, knowing we made a difference to this mad world. But we didn't. I didn't get to see him when he took the arrow, and we didn't die in battle. I didn't die with him.

"And there's still more happening. The end isn't here yet. We're far from it, actually, and Jonah should be here to see it. I'm going to miss all that, and I think that will be my biggest regret in life."

He turned to Dani's grave just as the first tear I'd seen him shed rolled down his cheek. "And Dani?" he continued, "I…I wanted to say the same."

That might seem harsh to you. It seemed a bit harsh to me. She was dead in our minds. But really, Fane just preached the truth we'd all been thinking.

Clara began the spell before I could dwell on it. I chimed in with her, and when Fane had control over his voice he spoke the words as well.

The instant the sun finished rising Jonah's body, the flowers, and everything else burst into golden shimmers and then faded.

And that was it. My anchor and friends were gone forever. All I had were two gravestones – Jonah's saying Jonah. 1900 – 2012. You made it to the end with honour, and Dani's saying a simple, Dani. 1900 – 2012. We wish it could've been easier, for all of us.

I guess Lêshä was helping me out with the grief, because I didn't feel hopeless. I didn't feel distraught. I knew it would be hard to smile for a while yet, but I wasn't stricken with tears.

All I wanted was to make sure they didn't die in vain.

The instant Bläsa's forces came close to the camp, I heard them coming. I guess Lêshä was trying to warn me, because I could hear the hissing of the Raze and then smell of their crusty skin from miles away. It was evening and the sun was falling already. They'd chosen night as their cover.

"They're here," I said, stopping Clara and Fane in their tracks. We were down in the Practice Rooms. X had refused to teach us, always grumbling about how he was a failure, and no matter what we did he sat in his desk all day. So we'd been teaching ourselves magic and fighting.

"Okay," Fane said nervously, though he was trying to be brave. "We all know the plan, right?"

Clara and I both nodded. "Is it really much of a plan?"

No, it wasn't.

We magically changed into light armour, although we weren't sure if we could hold back the Raze's teeth and claws with it. They bit through everything fairly easily.

Grabbing our weapons, we walked out to the meadow. The sunset fell overhead, giving way to dark. My tattooed daggers were incredible – they felt like an extension of my body and I didn't even have to think to work them. Clara brandished her long sword quite heroically, and Fane slid out his double knives like a ninja.

But none of us could hide our fear.

Lêshä? I thought. I'm going to need all the help I can get.

Don't worry, she replied. I'm here.

Instantly strength flooded through me and my senses sharpened. I was battle-ready.

"Okay," Fane said. "We can't see them through the boundaries. I'm going to take the boundaries down so we can see them. We need to see them, right?"

Clara and I nodded. Together, with Fane, we took away the borders of the camp.

And there they were. Bläsa was confidently walking towards us, a sword in his belt. About a hundred Raze followed him, although Dani was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she was commanding the rest of his army.

It didn't matter. I could see the ring on Bläsa's finger. It was a ruby red and it glinted in the morning sun. That was what I needed to get to.

"Why doesn't he just strike us down?" I muttered. "He's a god." Clara and Fane shrugged. With a pang, I realized I asked Jonah those kinds of questions. This time, however, Lêshä answered me.

I cast him down into a mortal form, she replied. He's lost his godly powers. If he kills everything I stand for, then I will be so weak he can cast me down as well…and…court me.

He wants to court you by killing Light? I exclaimed mentally, which I actually harder to do then you might think. It's like screaming while whispering…in your head. She thought the equivalent of a sharp nod in return.

Love makes people do stupid things, apparently.

Bläsa stopped at the edge of the camp, as if testing for borders, but when he found there weren't any he scowled. "This is too easy," he snorted. "Don't you think you should defend your camp?"

I shrugged, boldly stepping forwards so he could see my power matched Dani's. "You're not a god anymore, Bläsa," I said, recalling what Lêshä had just told me, "You don't have the power to kill us from there."

He raised his eyebrows slightly when he saw my tattoos, and pleasantly chose to ignore my comment, though I could tell I'd angered him. "But do you?" he asked, stepping one step closer. His army followed, stepping only one step. It would've been comical if they weren't massive oversized insects foaming at the mouths.

I shrugged my shoulders. Our plan was basically to go crazy and kill as many as possible, and somehow I'd get the ring. I told you it wasn't much of a plan. I wasn't sure how long this standoff was going to last, because at any moment the Raze could get hungry and charge, or Bläsa. It was equally possible one of us would lose our cool and charge…namely me.

"I do like how as soon as I get my Vessel, you go and make the same bond. Is that smart? Is it tactical?" His lips moved into a smile.

Part of me knew that he just wanted to provoke me, but the other part was angry. "I can match your Vessel," I yelled, but I was careful not to say Dani's name or I might've choked up. "I can beat your Vessel!"

He chuckled, a deep throaty sound that echoed all around me. "We'll see about that. Don't you realize the point of a Vessel, anyways?"

I hated to, but I shook my head.

"We're gods, Lêshä and I, and we need a connection to the mortal world. Without the mortal world believing in us, we'd die," he explained. "You serve as our linking point."

"No one believes in you," I said, hiding a laugh. "I'd never heard of you before."

"I go by many names," he replied, "and many people see me how they want to. I am their Devil, their Hades, their Pluto and their Anubis. Lêshä…in her grace, she is God. She is Zeus, Hera, Minerva, and she deserves to be Aphrodite all in one."

Umm, ew, Lêshä said in my head. I chose to ignore "Aphrodite."

"Bläsa," Fane said, cutting into our squabble, "Are you here to fight or talk?"

Bläsa sneered slightly. "I'm not here for either. I'm here to kill you."

On the last word, his army broke the stance and charged.

"Oh, shi–," Fane spat before we were bombarded by Raze. I lost sight of him and Clara in the fray. All I was focused on was Bläsa and getting to him. He was standing off to the side, a cocky grin on his face. He expected his Raze to just wipe us out easily. I was not going to let that happen.

Slashing with my daggers, I easily brought down any Raze in my path. One of them tried to claw me, but I magically threw him away (literally). I was wearing armour, yes, but I didn't want to have to test it.

Nobody noticed me steadily approaching Bläsa…not even Bläsa himself. It should've worried me, but instead, I just felt stronger. I felt a rush in my head and all I wanted to do was kill him. I could even feel Lêshä in my head, begging me to get the job done. Come on, she muttered, You can kill him.

You're just scared of being courted, I found myself saying. Another Raze leapt out of the shadows and I cut it in half, my eyes still on Bläsa.

I could see him clearly now; his features were smug and he wasn't doing anything at all - no, he was just waiting for the Raze to kill us all. But when I looked at his hand, expecting there to be a ring, but there wasn't.

His fingers were bare.

I didn't know where he was, but I knew I'd spoken in his mind before, so I mentally yelled out to Fane, He has no ring on!

I knew I wouldn't get a reply, but I didn't know what to do. In my confusion several Raze almost bit me before I regained some control. What the hell was I going to do? We weren't going to get out of this…

"Let her come!"

Bläsa's booming roar shook the meadow, and suddenly, everything stopped. Time literally froze around me. The Raze all stopped moving, frozen in various positions. One of them was inches from my back, ready to chomp me, but it was frozen mid-leap. I spun on my heels, trying to find my friends, and sure enough, they were moving as well, pushing frozen Raze aside and coming to my side.

"What trick is this, Bläsa?" Fane demanded.

"Don't push him," Clara muttered. "This is kinda handy, if you think about it…"

"I'm glad you appreciate my work," Bläsa laughed, drawing our attention away from the still army and towards the towering god. "This isn't easy, you know. It took precision."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes; then I realized Lêshä was the one rolling her eyes, and I just did the action for her.

"Lêshä was clever by making a Vessel," Bläsa continued, pointing a finger right at me, "but not clever enough. She didn't count on…certain forces."

A sudden gust of wind filled the clearing, whipping my golden hair backwards. A strong wing beat echoed through the meadow, and I looked up at the sky to see an eagle.

"An eagle?" I asked doubtfully. "You brought an eagle to kill us?"

Bläsa shrugged. "Sorry. I'm an old timer, you would say."

"It's a nice eagle," Clara shrugged. I looked over and her and bit my lip when I saw the long scratch on her shoulder. I knew, since she wasn't unconscious, that it was a mercury scratch, and she'd be able to heal, but that was some of her energy gone.

"Guys," Fane said slowly, "I don't think it's an eagle." I noted Fane also had been bitten. It was light, but he kept grimacing in pain, so I knew there was a mercury scratch somewhere on him. The large bird was floating through the air, slowly coming down towards us, but he was right. The giant bird had doubled in size and it continued to grow. Before long it had tripled in size, and it didn't look like an eagle anymore - its legs were muscular and its wings stretched out farther, and it seemed to shine its own light, combating that of the sun.

"Oh, shit," I heard Fane beside me, and it was painfully obvious that once again, we were in terrible, terrible danger.

The rustling wind became too much and I had to shield my eyes from the flying dirt. When the wind finally stopped and I could look again, a dragon was in front of me.

Yes, I did say dragon. Scales coated its massive, turquoise body, and ran all the way down to its feet, where huge, curved claws could be found. It's eyes were small, black and beady but I knew it could see us clearly. Smoke drifted out of its nostrils and a small tuft of flame followed, eagle feathers burning and shriveling inside the fire.

"That's a…that's a…" Clara trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. I vaguely remembered X telling us about dragons, grouping them with "other magical species" but I couldn't remember anything else about them.

"Dragon," Bläsa finished, his smug look not going unnoticed. "In the olden days, the days of creation, they were called Dråygiöns, but mortals can't pronounce that so we simplified it. We simplified everything for the mortals, didn't we?"

"You brought a dragon to kill us," I said, biting my lip. The thing was huge; it would require a lot of agility and magic to take him down, and probably all three of us.

"Well, I had to come prepared, didn't I?" he said, shrugging. The dragon hissed in response, casting its beady eyes to its master. Lêshä, I thought in my mind, how do you kill a dragon?

Hmm, her voice came into my head, Well…umm…probably not fire…

You don't know, do you?

I wouldn't say that, she retorted. It's just been so long…I've forgotten. How embarrassing.

Great. You get a god in your head, and she can't remember the trivial things, like killing dragons. Figures.

I cracked my knuckles, not taking my eyes off the dragon. "What's the point of bringing the Raze here, just to bring a dragon, Bläsa? It makes no sense."

He shrugged again, a movement I found infuriating. "It wouldn't to you, would it?"

And then the dragon pounced.

"Shit!" I yelled, just before I dived out of the way, uprooting some grass as I skidded along the ground. We'd all dived in different directions, causing a sort of triangle around the dragon.

"Hope!" I heard Fane yell, "do your spell! Now!"

I knew the one he meant - it was the one I'd used to escape from Bläsa's compound. I nodded and focused my energy, creating the magical aura around me I needed. I could hear Fane slashing something with his daggers and Clara yelling, but I tuned them out as I felt magic seeping from my hands to the outside world. "Put up a shield!" I managed to yell before I let it all go.

Black energy swirled around me like I was in the middle of a tornado. Through gritted teeth I propelled the energy towards the dragon who was engulfed in black. Letting my arms fall, I watched as Clara and Fane stumbled away from the inferno and listened to the dragon howl.

"Is it that easy?" Clara mumbled.

"Don't jinx it," Fane shushed her. She mumbled an apology before the swooping tornado disappeared…

Leaving one very, very, pissed off dragon.

Clara smacked herself in the head, clearly blaming herself for the result, when the dragon pounced again, this time shaking the ground and roaring, spewing fire into the air.

"Hope!" I heard Fane yell again, "Look! The neck!"

I managed to catch a glance at the beast's huge neck, and I saw a small, ruby red ring hanging from a chain. Bläsa's ring!

"That's too easy," I mumbled, before shrugging and running behind the dragon. "Keep it distracted!" I yelled to my friends, who began shooting spells and slashing the dragon's front.

The dragon's tail was long, and two spikes guarded the end, but I had to try. With a quick grunt, I lunged myself onto its tail, stabbing my daggers into its scales for support.

Somehow, the dragon didn't even react.

"Come on, Hope!" Clara yelled, jumping away from a column of flame spewed in her direction. Like I was climbing a mountain, I shimmied my way up the tail until I was on its back. Now the monster noticed.

It began to move back and forth, shaking to knock me off like you would shake a fly off. I couldn't move for a second. All I could do was hold onto my daggers and wrap my legs around the back of the dragon to keep my grip.

Another flame of fire shot out of the dragon's nostrils, and I heard somebody scream in terror and then Fane yelling, "Hope! Hurry the hell up!"

"Easy…for…you…to say," I grumbled, hauling myself up another inch, still trying to stay still. "Stop moving!" I yelled at the dragon, who…froze.

"What did you do?" I yelled to Fane, scrambling my way up the thick hide as fast as I could.

"Nothing!" he yelled back, "but Clara's frozen too! She just stopped in the middle of the attack! Hurry up, kill it! Get the ring!"

I didn't have time to worry about Clara (yes, I know that sounds rude. I'm sorry, I was battling a giant dragon) and soon I was on the dragon's still frozen neck, stabbing my daggers in at random points. Liquid dribbled out of the wounds, but it was blue, unlike red blood. Soon my hands were coated and I looked like a half-smurf but I kept climbing until I was just under the head.

As quickly as possible, I jabbed my daggers into both eyes.

Just my luck, the dragon unfroze.

It roared in anger, and before I could jump down myself, I was flying off the dragon's back and across the meadow, hitting the ground with a thump.

My eyesight blurred and I struggled to sit up. The dragon seemed to be dancing around the clearing, spewing fire in every direction, and soon the area below my feet was singed and burning. Frozen Raze were falling to the ground, dying without even being aware.

I stumbled to my feet, swaying slightly. I snatched up my daggers from where they had been tossed and saw Fane slide underneath the dragon with his daggers ready. Clara was passed out on the ground, a few Raze around her. Her long sword had been casually thrown beside her. It was obvious she had died, but what had happened to her? Why had she frozen?

And then, just as Fane rolled back out from under it's belly, the dragon staggered and wobbled like it really would die. Blue blood pooled below it, and as its massive body fell to the ground, another ring of fire flew from its nostrils. It would've hit Clara, and that would've been it for her, but then suddenly Fane was running and through my blurry vision, I saw him jump in front of her and take the blow.

"Fane!" I yelled, as he dropped to the ground, shaking. He wasn't burned so it wasn't normal fire, but he was hurt. Clara had begun to stir, her ten minutes finally up.

I staggered over, my vision still blurry. "What's going on?" Clara groaned, clutching her head. I reached the two just as the dragon fell to the ground, for once and for all. The ground shook like an earthquake had struck. "Oh," Clara said, "That's what happened."

"Fane!" I yelled again, and soon Clara was by my side, but her expression was grave. "What?" I said.

"He's dying," she whispered, clutching his shaking hand.

"Yeah, okay, he'll come back," I said. "He'll be fine."

"No!" she yelled. "No, he won't. He's dying for real, Hope. Just like Jonah did!"

I shook my head, refusing to believe it. "No. No, he hasn't got the four poisons in him. There's no way."

"He got scratched and bitten, so that's arsenic and mercury," she said, her voice barely audible, "and the fire must've contained ricin and cyanide, because he's dying. I'm sure of it."

"Maybe you're wrong," I whispered, but I knew she was right.

"We have to kill him," she said. "And when he dies, he won't come back."

"How can you say that?" I cried. "He saved your life, Clara. After you…what the hell happened to you, anyway?"

"I would tell you if I knew," she spat. "Suddenly, the world just stopped and I blacked out and died, okay? I don't know."

"Okay," I grumbled. "Fane?"

"Mhm…," he mumbled.

"I never thought I'd - I'd have to say this, but…which one of us…should…you know…"

He shook his head. "I…will."

I was about to protest, tell him not to, tell him this was a huge deal, but my mind flashed back to when I had tried to kill myself, and I stayed silent. Without a word, I handed him one of my daggers, fighting the tears welling in my eyes.

"Wait," Clara said all of a sudden, "Where's Bläsa? Where did that son of a bitch go?"

She was right. All around us, dead Raze lay on the ground, their rotting corpses giving off a terrible odor, and blue blood was still pooling around the dragon, but Bläsa was gone.

And don't ask me how I knew. I just did. Maybe it was Lêshä, pushing the thought into my head, or maybe it was just pure intuition, but I knew.

"He's gone back in time."

 


	11. Chapter Ten

"Don't be silly," Clara told me. "He can't even do that…"

"He can't," I said, staring at her bloodshot eyes, "But Dani can. And with Dani as his Vessel, he can travel in time, too."

"But Dani can't travel that far," she insisted. "So he couldn't have gone that far back or forwards."

"He's a former god!" I yelled, stomping my foot in anger. "That's what it was! That's why all these Raze are dead now! It was time waves or something!"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down," Clara cried, but I was on a roll.

"That's it! When he went through time, there must have been 'time waves' or something, and it messed with the minds of the Raze and the dragon. And yours!"

"I'd like to think I can deal with time," she snorted.

"You're the Nature Eternal. Nature doesn't deal well with time," I pointed out. "Natural with the un-Natural. But why didn't Fane and I freeze…?"

"Well, you're the Vessel," Clara said.

"Matter…is part of…time," Fane stammered, and my eyes shot back to his shaking form. Shit. How could I have forgotten?

"We've got to follow him," I said softly.

"And I…can't go with…you," Fane finished.

"I'm so, so sorry Fane," I whispered. "But, you know…maybe we can change history for the better somehow."

"We can still make it," Clara said. "The time waves couldn't have gone yet. If we…if we hurry…"

"Listen," Fane whispered. "If you go back…in time…the year 1895. I'm on the streets. Selling newspapers. I traveled…all over. But for a long…long time, I was with…a freak show…called "Human…Mistakes." Find me. Show me you're…like me. I'll help you."

"How do you know that?" I whispered, just as the answer became painfully obvious.

He gave me a small smile. "Because I remember."

And then he plunged the dagger into his heart, and Fane was dead.

Clara let out a choked sob and I put a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her, because I knew just how much he meant to her.

To everyone.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to run, to grieve, as I did for Jonah, but I didn't. My cheeks stayed dry. And I knew that that was wrong of me, that I should be showing sadness, because somehow failing to do so felt unfair to Fane, unfair of everything he stood for, the kind of person he was.

But maybe it was what he had said that distracted me.

'I remember.'

What did he remember? Something from his past? Something…with me and Clara?

"Clara," I whispered, realization suddenly striking me, "We've got to follow him. Quickly, before the time waves…dissipate, or whatever you want to call it!"

She snapped her head to me, her eyes still red and puffy. "Fane just died and all you can think about it Bläsa?"

"Well," I said softly. "Yes, because in a way, Bläsa killed Fane, didn't he? And remember what Fane said? He said 'I remember.' He remembered us back in time!"

"We'll see him again?" she said, her voice hoarse, still staring at Fane's body like she was waiting to see if he'd come back after all.

"Yes," I said. "Yes, we will."

There was a moment of silence and then I added, under my breath, "Hopefully."

"C'mon!" Clara suddenly cried. "We've got to go back! How do we go back?"

"Just…let me…I don't know!" I yelled, and even though it pained me, I bent down and took my dagger from Fane's chest. I didn't want to. But I had to.

"Use your power!" she suggested. "Ask Lêshä. Just try."

"Can you still feel them?" I asked.

"Vaguely," she replied. "It kinda feels like it's fading…just a slight tingle in my brain, if you know what I mean…hurry!"

"Well, I don't know what to do!" I yelled, willing the power in my body to come to my fingertips, but I didn't know how to use it.

All you must do, Lêshä said in my head, is try.

And if that wasn't clichéd, I didn't know what was.

"Okay," I whispered, turning so I'd face the approximate direction Bläsa had disappeared, and out of impulse, stuck out my hand. I had no clue what I was doing - but making the motion seemed to convince Clara that something productive was going on.

'Uh…Lêshä?' I thought slowly. 'Help. Please. Tell me more than just "try." We need to get back to Fane, to stop Bläsa.' Probably the only thing that was keeping me from breaking down into tears at Fane's death was the chance that we'd see him again, even if it was in a different time where he wouldn't know us.

And then, suddenly, everything changed.

'Must I do everything for you?' Lêshä's voice fluttered through my head and my eyesight tunneled, the field gone; instead, I just saw images, flying past me at the speed of light, going so fast I couldn't focus on them.

"Is this time travel?" I gasped. I could've sworn I saw chariots in one picture, and in another, pyramids that were only half built.

"I guess?" I spun around to see Clara standing beside me, in the middle of all the pictures. "I've never done it before, so…"

Politely (or not so politely, your call) choosing to ignore me, she asked, "Well, how do we know when to stop?"

"Uh," I said, "Well, we know Fane's in 1895. And he remembers stuff happening there? Like, meeting us. I guess?"

"Time travel's weird," she mused. Then, looking around, she began to yell, "1895! Can we stop at 1895, people? Yes? Please? No?"

"Do you seriously think that's going to work?" I said dryly, just as my vision suddenly snapped to darkness and I felt myself falling down, down, down…

When I could feel something beneath my feet, I opened my eyes to see myself standing on a busy street, with…horse carriages? People were walking in every direction and I barely managed to get up off of the road before a horse ran right over me.

"I think we're in 1895," Clara said, panting beside me. Luckily, she escaped the trampling as well.

She was right. We were standing to the side of a cobbled street, where people were busily going about their day. Their clothing was all old fashioned, there were no cars (they were in carriages, after all) and just as I was getting a grip on where we were, I realized people were staring at us.

Well, they had a right to. I was covered in gold tattoos, was wearing extremely light armour and had two daggers (also covered in gold) sheathed in my belt. Clara, if she had time, could pass as someone from this time period, but we probably should've thought to bring some makeup.

But even that probably wouldn't have been enough.

"Who…?" someone said, and then, to my surprise, he brought out a handgun. A man stepped towards us, his gun at the ready, a smoking pipe in the other hand.

"Hello," I said, struggling to come up with something, gesturing at Clara to help me out before we got shot. I mean, I didn't even know they had guns in this time. And, even though we'd come back, we'd rise from the dead right in front of a human in 1895. We'd be freaks.

Wait.

That could actually be a good thing.

"We're lost," I said. "Have you heard of Human Mistakes?"

A few men on the street sucked in a breath, and a few had an expression of wonder on their faces. "Have we heard of them?" the man with the gun answered. "You could say that."

"Don't talk to them!" someone else cried, and although I couldn't locate the source of the sound, I knew the fact that we'd arrived in such a public place would be trouble.

"That's great!" I continued, ignoring the outburst. "Could you tell us where they went?"

"I'd have to accompany you," the man with the gun said slowly, still unsure of whether or not to shoot. "But…I suppose it wouldn't be too much of a problem…"

"You're out of your mind," someone hissed. The crowd was getting bigger, but the space in between us and the people was also growing. I stepped back, the thought to show them that I wasn't going to hurt them, that I wasn't scary, but I think it backfired because suddenly I heard the click of a gun being loaded.

"Don't move," another voice whispered shakily.

"We're not going to hurt you!" Clara jumped in. "We're just…lost."

"Why aren't we buying that?" came another cry. "Maybe your Devil's spawn!"

My own father had called me 'Devil's spawn' once.

"Please-"

That's as much as I got before suddenly I was on the ground, a bullet through my heart, bleeding out in front of regular humans.

Damn.

So, yeah, I died, and all that stuff.

And then my vision cleared, my breath started coming again, and I sat up, blinking as I saw about fifty people crowding around me and Clara (who was still dead).

Screams filled the air as I realized that the bullet wound in my chest was also closing, leaving the faint trace of blood on my clothes. "It's okay!" I shouted, but that didn't help, because the screams just grew louder.

"I'm serious, it's okay…" I stopped trying. Someone cocked their pistol at my head again, but then they put it away when they remembered that did no good.

The chaos and pandemonium lasted for about five minutes, all of which I desperately wanted to leave, but Clara was still dead and I'd be too noticeable if I was carrying her. I didn't want to use my magic, because let's face it - I'd already screwed up the timeline enough as it was.

Damn, the timeline.

I had to find Bläsa, before he messed things up more than I already had.

"Clara!" I hissed, trying to get her to wake up. I knew she wouldn't, but still, it was worth a shot.

"SHUT UP!"

A young boy's voice cut through the crowd. Suddenly, someone with blonde hair and green, green eyes was stepping forwards, a gun in his hand, but he wasn't aiming it at me.

"Seen another like you. Boy named Fane," he said. "C'mon, I'll take you to Human Mistakes." My heart jumped when he said Fane's name, but I knew I couldn't be too excited.

"Why are you-" someone began.

"I said to stop talking," came the quick reply. Turning back to me and Clara, the boy outstretched his hand and said, "The name's Joel."

Right at that very moment, Clara sat upright, gasping for air. "Clara," I hissed, trying to get her to focus. "Listen, this guy knows Fane."

"Great," she muttered. She was always grumpy after dying.

I took Joel's hand and thankfully, he didn't drop me. Clara, huffing, decided to get up on her own. "We should leave," she snapped.

Joel nodded and began walking down the street, as if oblivious to people running up and down the cobblestone. While Clara and I tried to keep up with his quick strides, I whispered, "What's got you in a knot?"

"That's such old fashioned language," she replied.

"Actually," I said, "No, it's not."

She chuckled slightly at that. "Yeah, whatever. And I just don't like getting shot. What, do you?"

"Hey, I shot you when I met you," I pointed out. "Does that mean you don't like me?"

She gave me a look that clearly meant "Shut up right now." We crossed a couple streets before she said, "Who's he? He looks really, really familiar…"

"He's the guy that saved us," I told her, and her eyebrows raised in appreciation. "Stopped us from getting shot again."

"Still looks familiar."

Her questions were cut off when we rounded a corner and were immediately greeted by a large, tall man in a…magician's suit and a top hat. It was actually quite unexpected when he shouted in a large, booming voice, "Here for the show? I bet you are!"

"No," Joel immediately said. "I'm just here to give you two more…well, exhibits." I fumed slightly at that.

"Ah, yes," the tall man (he looked kinda like a modern day carny) told us. "My name is…that's not important. Come, follow me, right now."

"Is it that easy?" I asked Clara, but she apparently had more important things on her mind.

"Is your name really 'that's not important?'" she asked, staring at him with furrowed eyebrows.

A dagger shot through my mind, if that makes any sense. Lêshä's thoughts were suddenly swimming through mine, but all she was saying was 'Danger! Danger! Warning! Something's wrong.'

I studied the man and I knew all too well she was right. He was staring at me hungrily, like he knew me already, but I had no proof he was something evil. He could just be a typical carny. "Okay," I said slowly. "We'll go with you."

"Actually," Joel jumped in, "I'll watch the show. I won't take part, obviously."

"Obviously," the man replied, putting a hand on my back and pushing me towards a small clearing in the street. There wasn't anything there, just a small gathering of people that all looked…normal.

"This is a freak show?" I asked, and realized too late the words were said aloud.

"Yes, yes, state of the art," the man huffed. "Go over there. Wait for me."

We didn't really have a choice in the matter. I turned back to Clara, but she was already running towards the crowd of people and it took me only a second to see why.

Fane was milling about the crowd. He looked tired and hungry, like he hadn't slept or had a proper meal in days, and he was clearly unsure of what to do with himself. But he was Fane, he was here, and he was alive.

And Clara ran right over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly, much to his shock.

"Clara!" I hissed, running over and trying to pull her back. Don't get me wrong, I was ecstatic to see Fane again, but he didn't know us. He didn't know who we were, and being hugged (or attacked) by us really wouldn't help.

"Who are you?" he asked, stepping away from Clara who was trying not to cry. "What was that?"

"Listen," I told him quickly. "Your name is Fane. You were born in 1600, on January 1st and you've lived far longer than you think you should've. You can live forever, and you can never die, and we're like you."

He blinked once, twice, three times, and then let out a sigh. "Well, okay."

It was my turn to blink. "Seriously? You believe me just like that?"

He shrugged. "Does it really matter?"

"We need your help," I said. "Someone really, really bad is here and we don't know what he's going to do but he's going to try to change history-"

"The show is starting!" the tall man boomed. I looked over to the other side of the clearing. Joel and about two other people were just aimlessly sitting in the field, obviously here for some other reason that actually wanting to be here.

"There's nothing here," one of the girls in the crowd said. "Our old show runner knew what he was doing. You just put us in a crowd and said do stuff."

The man stared at the girl for a second, and I swear I could hear his heart pumping. Nobody moved; nobody dared to move.

And then he brought out a gun and shot the girl right in the forehead.

She crumpled to the ground, her eyes lifeless, and that's when it clicked.

I'm sorry I didn't care more about the girls' life, but at that point, everything became clear. I knew why the man seemed familiar. I knew exactly who he was.

"Hope," he said, walking over to me. I still couldn't use my magic for fear of wrecking history. I couldn't seem to move either. As he walked forwards, I felt frozen with fear, and I still don't know why. "It's nice to see you again."

"Bläsa," I whispered as he pointed his gun towards my forehead.

"I can't believe you followed me here, Hope," he continued, tilting his head slightly. I think Clara was screaming at me, but I'm not sure. "You know, you were next."

"Next?" Clara's hand on my shoulder shook me out of my daze and suddenly she was pulling me away, across the clearing where Joel was beckoning.

But I pushed her away.

Because suddenly it really was all too clear.

"Bläsa, don't do this," I whispered. "You can still make this right. Eliminating us isn't going to make Lêshä love you."

He laughed. He actually had the nerve to laugh. "Maybe not, but I can try, yes?"

Before I could even try to stop him he was pulling the trigger and another bullet was flying across the clearing, past my ear, past Clara's cheek, past the crowd -

And right between Fane's eyes.

"You can't kill him!" I said, looking back at Bläsa like he was an idiot. "He's…he's an Eternal. You can't kill him with a bullet…"

But I knew.

"Don't you think I've thought of that?" the god sighed. "It's a special gun, Hope. Four poisons in one weapon."

"You…you killed him, you really did," I whispered. Clara suddenly screamed, her heart breaking into a million pieces, the tears flowing from her eyes but that didn't seem real. Time was slowing down, but only in the small space around me that was getting smaller, smaller, smaller…

"But he remembered us," I said softly, my own words failing. "He did! You just changed everything! You killed him in 1895...I'm next…"

"Danielle's already dead. That girl was her mother," Bläsa said casually, gesturing to the girl he shot before.

I looked up at him, staring into his eyes, his eyes that just seemed too deep, too dark. And I knew.

"Clara," I said. "Go to Joel. Bring him here."

"Joel?" she whispered. "Joel?! Joel that's standing over there?" she yelled. "Hope, Joel's the first! The first Eternal!"

And then she was off running towards him, not giving me another thought. I looked back at Bläsa. "Shoot me, then," I said. "Go ahead. Do it."

I didn't know whether Clara would bring Joel or not, but I had to believe she would. I had to trust her, no matter how broken she felt.

"So cocky," he said, a hint of admiration lightening his tone.

"I don't care." And I meant it.

You remember how I said that I wanted to live? How I'd 'accomplished the first thing everyone should?'

Well, that was then, and at that point, I was back to the old Hope, the one who really couldn't care less if she died or not.

I really, really didn't.

"Well, I am a god," he said, "and gods grant wishes, do they not?"

And then a portal was opened up, right in the middle of the clearing, right in front of Bläsa. He was going through time again.

He was going through time to kill me.

"Why can't you do it here?" I yelled. "What's wrong with now?"

"My dear, dear Hope," he whispered. "Where's the fun in that?"

Just as he stepped into the portal, the one I couldn't seem to find the strength to chase him through, the clearing was torn apart by an ear-splitting-

Bang.

And suddenly people are screaming-

And I'm aware of every little thing-

And Bläsa's stepping through the portal-

And he's still holding the gun-

But the bullet hits him right in the hand-

The gun falls to the ground-

Joel's running over, his gun outstretched in his hand, Clara behind him-

And the portal swallows Bläsa full and he's gone, but the gun's still here.

All was silent for a moment, but I was running, snatching the gun up from the ground and checking it over.

There was one bullet left inside.

I knew exactly who it was for.

And I knew who I would make it for.

"Joel," I said, still staring at the gun. "So you're an Eternal, right?"

"Right," he said. "Clara says she knows me quite well in the future. Anyways, come on, let's follow him! He's messed things up-"

"I'm so sorry."

"What?" Clara and Joel both said at the same time.

"I'm just so, so sorry."

And I point the gun at Joel's head.

That's what's happened so far. Every single bit of it.

And now I'm here, standing in front of Joel's shocked face and Clara's teary one, trying to find the nerve to pull the trigger.

"What are you doing, Hope?!" Clara's screaming. She's been saying things like that for what seems like hours but I won't be swayed, I can't be swayed…

"Listen," I say. "If Joel dies, there is no camp. There is no Clara saving me. I'll die of something because the Eternals won't be organized. And if there's no me, no organization, than there's no Vessels, no gods trying to connect to humans, none of that. And Bläsa doesn't rise, and the timeline goes back to normal."

"But if the timeline goes back to normal, we won't be here!" Clara cries frantically. She's on her knees now and it's pulling at my heartstrings because now I'm breaking her, I'm the reason everything she thought she knew has betrayed her.

"I have to take the risk," I whisper.

I'm betraying her now.

"I said I'm sorry!" I yelled. "But I have…I have to!"

"We'll follow him!" she says. "Like we did before…"

Joel's said nothing this entire time, but he finally speaks. "Shoot me in the head, yeah? Make it quick."

He knows it's right.

I'm not so sure.

But I have to.

"Remember what you always said?" Clara asks, and I can tell she's pulling her last card, she's trying her final trick. She's desperate and seeing that hurts.

"No," I answer honestly, my eyes locked on Joel. I haven't looked her straight on since Fane was shot.

"You always said 'there's always a choice.' There's one now, too. You don't have to do this."

It's a good point. I can tell she's thought a lot about this and for a moment - just a moment - I lower the gun, because I want to give in.

This isn't something I want to do.

I don't want to shoot Joel.

Working up the nerve, I stare at Clara. I love her like a sister and I know if I do this, I'm going to forget her. We'll never meet. All the memories of me and her begin to fill my mind - her shooting me, me shooting her, slapping her in the camp, sharing grapes, the first lesson, the first mission, grieving over Dani, grieving over Jonah, grieving over Fane…

We're the only two left.

And I'm taking that away - from both of us.

"Clara," I say, and everything I say I mean, I mean so sincerely my heart aches as I give up the words.

"You're right."

Her features relax as I see she thinks she's convinced me. She thinks everything will work out.

That's the problem with her thinking.

"There is always a choice."

I know you probably think people just say that, without meaning it.

But it's right-

You do, or you do not.

Or you die trying.

I give her a soft smile. "Thank you for reminding me. No; thank you for…for everything. It's been wonderful, it really has."

Her face drops again and I can see the realization too late and she knows, she knows, she knows…

And then, with all the will I have, I look away from her, determined not to look back.

"There's always a choice."

We share a brief nod, and that's enough.

"And I choose this one."

I pull the trigger.

His world goes black; as does mind.


	12. Epilogue

They're crowding around me and I don't know what to do and I think I'm dying.

Their bodies are foul, with a stench that you could smell a thousand meters away. I was just in an alley, dying of starvation (again) and suddenly these monsters, making clicking noises, rushed at me, and bit me.

The pain is so overwhelming I don't even notice it anymore. I'm bleeding out. Why am I not hurting? Why is there no pain? Where did the feeling go…

I think I'm falling to the ground. I don't know what these creatures wanted with me, but they filled my blood with something strange. I can feel a toxin of sorts working its way through my blood, filling me with emptiness.

I'm dying.

For real.

I think I spend days in that alley. Nobody notices me, not even when I'm sweating and seizuring and writhing in pain. I don't know what they did to me but it's not good and my life is slipping away.

Maybe it's for the best, though.

I've lived too long, seen too much, done bad things.

I don't know what those things were, but it doesn't seem to matter.

I didn't choose to die.

But maybe, in a way, I did.

I've given up now for a long time.

I think…I think my only wish is to find someone else. Someone who knows my struggles. Who I can talk to when I'm feeling bad.

God, that sounds corny.

I just wish I wasn't dying alone.

Breath leaves me and then I'm rising up, up, up out of my body and I'm in the next dimension and I'm here to stay.

I always had this thing that I believed in -

"There's always a choice."

In a way, I chose to die.

Maybe, just maybe, I'm right about something.

Maybe today things will be okay, for once.

Maybe today I can live by dying.

 


End file.
